The Unforgivable Sin
by Bears Love Tourists
Summary: Complete. For every action, there is a consequence. After failing a forbidden human transmutation, Ryou is forced down a road he never meant to take, discovering harsh realities and unbelievable truths along the way.
1. Prologue

Posting this is a bad idea, it is indeed. I've got too much else on my plate, not the least of which is finishing my huge…large…gigantic Kingdom Hearts fic. But you know what? I DON'T CARE! So here it is, the first part of my Yu-Gi-Oh/FullMetal Alchemist crossover. I don't own either of them, of course. Enjoy!

Prologue

The circle was complete.

I stared hard at it for a good ten minutes after I had finished drawing it. A perfect white transmutation circle on the gray stone floor of my bedroom. The culmination of a year's hard work and study of alchemy. I searched for any flaw, any imperfection in the design. I consulted my notes and many of my textbooks. And finally, convinced that my circle was indeed perfect, I let out a laugh of triumph and ran to the shelf to get the ingredients for this transmutation.

After dumping several containers of powders and a few liquids into the circle, I ran down the hall to check the clock and peer out the living room windows. It wouldn't do for my parents to come home now and discover what I was doing. They wouldn't approve of it, that I knew very well. Human transmutation was impossible, they had told me. It was a sin. I should just let my brother rest in peace, they said.

But I couldn't. Not when I knew I could bring him back. Satisfied that no one was near the house and that my parents wouldn't be home for at least another hour, even if they left the party early, I ran back down the hall to my room, my automail making a strange _thunk_ every time I set my right foot down.

I paused just inside the door and pulled a photograph off a nearby shelf. Twin faces smiled at me from within the frame, one brother's hand shoving the other's already messy white hair up so that it stuck out in all directions. I smiled back sadly, running a hand through my own snowy locks as I remembered how much he hated it when I messed with his hair. The photo had been taken just a few weeks before the train wreck that had taken my leg and his life. We looked so happy. If we had known what would happen in just a few days, would we still be smiling that way?

I shook the thoughts from my head and stubbornly wiped a tear from my cheek. This was no time to be crying; I was about to get my brother back! "Don't worry, Akira," I whispered as I set the picture back on its shelf. "Mom and Dad will be so thrilled when they come home and find us both waiting for them."

I shut my door then and knelt down at the edge of the circle. It was time.

Fifteen years old. So arrogant. Believing that my skill was so great that I could even raise the dead.

If only I had known.

* * *

Yes, it's short. Sue me. The chapters will be longer, I promise. The way I see it, prologues are meant to be short. Anyways, the boy is Ryou, as you can tell, and no, this isn't the usual thing where the YGO cast takes the place of another story's cast. Think of this as a sequel to FMA. If you've seen the end of FMA, you probably know what some later events are already. If not…well, there's spoilers. Please review, folks! 


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

All I knew for a long time was darkness. The kind of deep blackness that one can only get from unconsciousness. I didn't have to feel or hear or see or think. The darkness was all that existed.

But that sweet state of oblivion had to end sometime, and reality was cruel indeed. The first thing I noticed as I rose from that darkness was the pain. A sharp, almost unbearable throb halfway down my left thigh, and below that the familiar ache of phantom pain. That's when I remembered…my other leg had been taken. Taken in the midst of that horrifying transmutation.

I had failed.

That realization slammed me fully into consciousness. I opened my eyes and squeezed them shut again to block out the dizzying, painful light. These sensations, this physical discomfort, it was all too familiar. I had experienced it a year ago, when that train derailed. But now it was coupled with the awful knowledge of what I had failed to do.

The memory of those last few minutes before I had passed out returned to my mind unbidden. The incredible pain as my leg was ripped away. The thick, choking smoke that had formed during the transmutation process. The hope that rose in me as the smoke began to clear, and the form of someone lying on the floor, in the middle of the circle, became slowly visible.

The crushing horror and despair when I realized that this thing, lying on the floor and struggling for its first breaths, wasn't my brother. It wasn't even human.

And after that the sweet oblivion of unconsciousness had taken me.

A tear leaked out, and another joined it, running from the corner of my eye down into my hair. It was then that I became aware of the argument taking place behind a closed door.

"There's no proof that he really tried that," one voice said. I recognized it immediately as Atemu, the young man who ran the town's automail shop along with his brother, Yugi. Atemu had been the one to fashion my right leg after the accident a year ago. He and Yugi were among the few friends I've ever had. I recognized now that I was in Yugi's room. Someone must have found me and carried me here.

"There's no other explanation," a different voice retorted, and I winced. It was the harsh, cold voice of my father. "That circle, the way everything in the room was knocked out of place. And the fact that he's missing his other leg now. He tried to resurrect Akira using alchemy, and he failed."

I stared at the door now as Atemu let out a resigned sigh. "I can have a new leg ready for him in a few days," he said in a weary voice. He must have been tired of arguing with my father. But then, my father often has that affect on people.

"Fix him up if you want! But don't send any bills to my house, Atemu. That boy is no son of mine."

More hot tears leaked out at the proclamation, even though I had fully expected it. My father was an alchemist himself, and he was also the most respected man in town. He would have nothing to do with me now. I had attempted the forbidden, with nothing to show for it but a bleeding stump where a leg used to be and an unnatural creature that had to struggle just to breathe. Dimly, I wondered about the creature, for I hadn't heard a mention of it, but I dismissed it quickly from my mind. The thing that should have been my brother probably died soon after I created it. If it was even alive in the first place. Either way, it was too painful to think about, so I didn't.

The sound of a door slamming reached my ears, and I knew that my father had left. After a few minutes, the door to my room opened, and Yugi walked in, carrying a tray of food.

"Ryou!" he gasped when he saw me. "You're awake!" He ran over to my bed and set the tray down on a nearby table. "How do you feel?"

I stared up at the ceiling, unwilling to meet his worried eyes. "Like a train hit me," I said in a pitiful attempt at humor. "And then came back to hit me again."

"Ryou…"

I winced inwardly at the tone of his voice. I hated it when people worried about me. That was all anyone had ever done for the past year, too. I was sick of it. "I'm fine," I told him. "I'll be just fine."

Silence met me, and I knew he didn't believe me. Which he shouldn't have; I very damn well wasn't fine, and neither was I a good liar. And this…this latest experience had done more than maim me again. It had torn my heart to shreds.

The door opened again, and Atemu poked his head in. He must have heard us talking and come to check on me. "It's about time you woke up," he commented quietly. "I was getting worried about you."

The worry thing again. I turned my head towards the wall in irritation and shame. "Don't worry about me," I said. "I'll be fine in no time. Even if I can't afford a new automail leg."

I heard both the brothers gasp. They knew then that I had overheard at least part of the argument with my father.

"Ryou," Atemu started in a choked voice. "I'm sure your father didn't mean that. If you only talked to him, I'm sure he'd—"

"No, Atemu," I said, cutting him off as I finally turned to look at him. "He's made up his mind. There's no changing it."

Understanding dawned in Atemu's eyes as I looked at him, and he paled noticeably. "Ryou," he breathed. "You didn't really…"

I closed my eyes, unable to look at the brothers anymore. "I couldn't do it," I told them, choking back a sob. "I don't know what went wrong! I thought everything was perfect, but…" I couldn't go on. How could I possibly describe the enormity of this failure to the Mutous, who were only automail engineers? They knew nothing about alchemy; it was a foreign science to them. What's more, they were both still alive. They still had each other. How could they possibly imagine the despair I felt now? Akira had been dead for just over a year now, but always I had held out hope. I would see him again. If I studied enough, if I practiced enough, I could bring him back. Now there was no hope. I had failed, and my brother was gone forever. There was nothing more I could do, other than live with the fact that I would never see him again.

And that I had committed a terrible crime against him.

"You're alive," Yugi said. I opened my eyes again to look at him. The look he gave me was one of sorrow and pity, not the contempt and disgust I had expected, but somehow that just made me feel worse. "That's all that matters right now," he continued, taking my hand and squeezing it gently. "Why don't you eat something now? It might make you feel better." He let go of my hand then and got up, walking to the door.

"I'm making a new leg for you," Atemu said as he moved over to let his younger brother pass by. "Don't worry about the cost; consider it an early birthday gift." He shut the door then, and I was all alone.

I grimaced at his parting words, remembering that my birthday was next week. Not that it mattered at all; I felt as if I had aged a hundred years in that one night. I sat up, fighting a sudden wave of dizziness and pain, and stared at the tray of food for a few seconds before sighing and lowering myself gently back down on the bed. Yugi was wrong; only one thing wound make me feel better right now, and it wasn't food.

I closed my eyes and waited for the sweet darkness to take me again.

* * *

My mother came to see me the next morning.

I was still bed-ridden by pain and nausea, but I could at least sit up now without feeling dizzy. I was sitting against the bed's backboard, staring out the window when I saw her coming down the dusty road towards the automail shop. I lay back down again immediately and turned my face to the wall, hoping that she'd think I was asleep when she came in.

I didn't want to face her. I couldn't.

I heard the door open and then close again. "I think he's asleep," Yugi's muffled voice said, and I breathed easier. He was easily fooled.

"Let me check," came a second voice. I winced, trying to even out my breathing as the door opened again. My mother was a master at seeing through any act.

The door opened again, and I shut my eyes as light footsteps made their way across the floor. There was a light touch on my shoulder, and my mother spoke again. "Ryou, honey, I know you're awake. Sit up and talk to me, son."

I stubbornly continued my charade, and when she spoke next, her tone was one that only a mother irritated at her child could have. "Ryou, sit up and look at me."

No use pretending now. With a sigh, I sat up, though I kept my gaze on some point on the wall beyond rather than looking at her.

"Ryou…why?"

I bit my lip in a vain effort to keep it from trembling. "I just…wanted to see Akira again," I whispered, trying to keep my voice from cracking. "Is that so wrong?"

"No, sweetheart," Mom replied in a quiet voice. "It's not wrong to miss your brother. But trying to transmute him…"

"Why?" I broke in, finally looking her in the eyes. "Why is human transmutation so wrong? So what if no one has ever accomplished it before! There's a first time for everything!" My voice was rising as all the built up frustration and pain within me finally found an outlet. "Touka Koukan; everything was there! _I had everything right! What went wrong? Tell me!_" I had begun to cry by now.

Mom didn't answer at first. She simply put her arms around me and pulled me close, letting me sob into her shoulder. "It's forbidden because it is dangerous," she said after a few minutes. "Many people have died attempting it. So now it is believed that it is God's territory, and that it is a sin." She pulled back to look at me again, and I could see now that she was crying, too. "Ryou, I'd love to see Akira again, too. But if you had to die to bring him back, I couldn't bear it. I don't want to lose you, too."

"Too late," I answered dully, returning my gaze to the back wall. "Father's already thrown me out."

She winced. "I'll…talk to him," she assured me. "Don't worry about a thing, sweetheart. You'll be able to come home soon." She kissed my forehead then and left.

I lay back in the bed again and stared at the ceiling. She could talk to my father all day and night, and he wouldn't change his mind. We both knew that. I had lost my brother, my legs, and my home.

I was all alone.

* * *

Two days later, Atemu had my new leg ready. It was nothing special to me; I already had one metal limb, after all. Although I had to admit, the Mutous' automail was the best in the area. I watched Yugi as he made the last few connections. Finally, he set his hand on the last connection and looked up at me. "You ready?" he asked.

I grimaced. Connecting live nerve endings to automail created pain beyond anything a person could feel. I remembered it well from last year, and I truly dreaded this moment. The look on Yugi's face told me he felt the same way. "Oh, just get it over with," I snapped, gripping the arms of the chair I was sitting in.

Yugi twisted the connection into place, and I screamed aloud at the pain, tears running down my face once again. The chair's arms splintered in my hands, and Atemu rushed in to help Yugi carry me to a bed. I wouldn't be able to do anything else that day as I rode out the waves of agony.

* * *

My mother came back later that evening. I knew even before she spoke that she had failed to convince my father to let me come back home. Just as I had known. I didn't have the energy to sit up, so I simply lay in the bed and watched as she walked over to me, pulling up a chair to sit down beside my bed. She cleared her throat, but she didn't start talking, and neither did she meet my eyes.

"Father's not letting me return home," I stated.

She nodded.

"Mom? Can I ask you one thing?"

"Of course, Ryou."

"What…what happened to it?" I whispered, shuddering at the memory.

She blinked. "What happened to what?"

"Ah…" The name died on my lips. There was _no_ way I could say it in reference to that monster I had created. "The…thing…that was there. In Akira's place."

Her face twisted in confusion. "Nothing and nobody else was in the house when we got home that night, Ryou," she said softly, brushing a lock of hair away from my eyes. "Just you. Alone, and injured."

I stared up at the ceiling. So…it was gone. That was for the best. I never wanted to see it again. Or even hear of it.

"I had an idea last night," Mom said suddenly, a falsely cheerful tone in her voice. "I have some old friends in Central City, and one of them is an alchemist. I called them up last night, and they said they'd love for you to go stay with them for a little while. I think it would be a nice change for you to get out some and see the world."

"Are you trying to get rid of me too, Mom?"

She winced, obviously very hurt, but I didn't care. It was an honest question.

"No, sweetheart, I'm not," she answered, pain lacing her voice. "I just think it would be best if you left town for a few days. Give your father time to calm down and see reason. He'll miss you, I'm sure. And as long as you're with the Ishtars, I'll be able to keep in touch. It's only temporary, Ryou. You'll be able to come home soon."

"…One of them's an alchemist?"

Mom nodded.

I had done a lot of thinking over the past few days about alchemy, and I still wasn't sure if I wanted to continue studying it. But what else could I do? It was my only talent, and according to what everyone in our town said, I was one of the best, like my father. I sighed. So I failed once. What that really a good reason to give it up forever? "Okay, sure," I said in a resigned tone. "I'll go."

Mom smiled brightly and leaned forward to kiss my forehead. "I'll get you a train ticket and pack a few of your things for you," she said as she got up to leave. "Take care, Ryou."

Yugi ran in just a few seconds after she had left. "Central City!" he gasped in envy, not caring that he had just informed me he had been eavesdropping. "Wow, Ryou, you're so lucky!"

I grimaced at the irony in his words, but I didn't interrupt him as he rattled on about the many sights and places in the capital city. Let him be excited for me; I had far too much on my mind.

Touka Koukan: The Principle of Equivalent Trade. In order to gain something, you must sacrifice something of equal value. It is the first and foremost rule of the science of alchemy. The human body is made up of a couple dozen different elements, all of them cheap and easy to find at the local apothecary. I had everything required to resurrect Akira. So what went wrong? And why did the transmutation go one step further and take my remaining leg?

Perhaps…I could find the answer in Central City.

* * *

Just so everyone knows, I haven't seen the English version of FullMetal Alchemist, so if I get the spelling wrong on some place name, blame it on the fansubs. And even that's a guessing game; Rizenbul and Lior and Ishbal all have about a dozen different spellings among the fansubs I have. Meh…

At any rate, I'm glad for the support. I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or FullMetal Alchemist. Keep the reviews coming!

**akikura:** Why, thanks!

**Ranko Urameshi:** Hey, I've done the same thing. Talk to someone at the same time I'm reviewing the story, I mean. Heck, Sora's right, I've done it to you. I'm kinda surprised to find myself updating this early, but I just can't seem to focus on writing AFT for some reason. Bleh. I hate writer's block…

**Reviewer:** Hee, I'll try to explain everything FMA related so you can keep up. :)

**unknown:** Trust me; I'll keep writing until I'm done. This is too good an idea not to see through! Just beware of FMA spoilers down the road.

**Winged Knight:** Of course Ed's gonna find out about this! As for whether or not Al dies at the end of the series, well, you're gonna be spoiler-ized about that if you keep reading. Just giving you a fair warning. :)

**wingweaver:** Heh, thanks!


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The day was bright and clear, with golden beams of sunshine raining warmth on the platform while a cool spring breeze kept the waiting people from getting hot. And everyone looked so happy as they milled about, chatting with friends and family before boarding the train that would take us all to Central City.

The scene was the exact opposite of my mood, and I felt that much worse because of it.

"Hey, Ryou, don't look so blue," Anzu said, nudging me with her elbow. She was Atemu's girlfriend, and she had come with the brothers and my mother to see me off. "You're going to live in Central City! Do you know how cool that is?"

"Very," I mumbled in reply, not looking at her. She was a nice girl, but we had never been close friends, and her efforts to cheer me up now only irritated me.

Mom must have noticed this, for she quickly intervened before Anzu could say anything else. "Sweetheart, it's about time you got on the train. It'll be leaving soon."

I nodded and picked up my small bag. Most of my luggage was stuffed into two other bags that had already been loaded into the cargo car of the train. This one contained a bit of food and a book to keep me company during the journey. I took two steps forward and turned around to face my friends and mother. Who knew when I was going to see them again? If at all?

"Thank you," I told them quietly, biting my lip in an effort to keep from crying.

Yugi shook his head and grinned. "Have fun in Central City, Ryou. And if you ever break your automail, be sure to come back here and get it fixed!"

"But don't you dare break it," Atemu chimed in, also with a smile. I smiled back despite my mood. The brothers just had that kind of effect on people.

Mom walked forward and hugged me. "Be careful, son," she whispered in my ear, and as she pulled away, she pushed a roll of money into my hand. "This is to get started. I suggest you get a job in the city so you won't be depending on the Ishtars completely. Don't be too much of a nuisance; I'll know it if you are."

"Yes, Mom," I answered dutifully.

"Bye, Ryou!" Anzu called as I stepped onto the train. I turned to wave at her and the others, and then hurried the rest of the way up the steps and into the car as the whistle blew. The train started moving with a jerk, and I had to grab the back of the nearest seat to keep from falling. This car was almost empty, with only two women sitting nearby chatting with each other and a man in the very back. I walked down the aisle, choosing a seat on the right side of the car that was farthest from all of them, wishing to be as alone as I could. Then I pulled out my new book, ignoring the beautiful country scenery that sped by out the window.

The book was about alchemy. Mom had bought it for me just yesterday, knowing that I would need something to do on the train ride. It was actually a textbook, containing all the latest theories and advances in the field of alchemy. I skimmed through the pages at first, hoping to find anything on the subject of human transmutation. But nothing jumped out at me, so I contented myself with starting from the beginning and simply reading.

I don't know how long I had been lost in the book when a hand landed on the back of my seat, scaring me out of my wits. The book fell to the floor as I jumped and turned to look at the man who had been sitting in the back. He smiled at me, obviously amused at my fright. He had long black hair, longer even than my considerable white mane, and skin just as pale as mine. His eyes were a chilling green.

"I'm sorry," he said, bowing his head slightly. When he looked at me again, a few bangs fell forward, hiding his right eye from view and making him look even creepier. "I didn't mean to startle you, but I couldn't help but notice the book you were reading. You are an alchemist?"

"S-something like that," I stuttered. I wasn't used to strangers just coming up and talking to me like this. Especially not guys as creepy as this one.

"You must be going to Central City to study more," he assumed with a chuckle. I decided to keep my mouth closed. "Perhaps even take the State Alchemist exam when you are old enough?"

I stiffened. "Why would I want to become a dog of the military!" So much for keeping my mouth closed.

The man held up his hands in an apologetic gesture. "To study in the city's library, of course. There are sections that only State Alchemists can access. That was all I was suggesting; I didn't mean to offend you." He leaned closer, grinning. "Perhaps they even have the secret to the Philosopher's Stone there."

"There's no such thing," I said shortly, leaning down to pick up my book. "Now, if you'd mind…"

Fortunately, he took the hint and left, walking forward and going through the door that led to the car in front of us, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps this idea of moving Central City wasn't so good after all, if strange men like him were going to be pestering me.

_The Philosopher's Stone. Rumored to increase an alchemist's ability to infinity. Even give them the ability to resurrect the dead. Akira…_

I shook the thought from my head. The Philosopher's Stone was a legend. Nothing more.

* * *

The train sped on through the day and into the night. Once it became too dark for me to read, I put the book away and leaned against the window, trying to get a little sleep. The creepy man kept invading my thoughts, however, keeping me from falling into slumber. I kept turning around to peer into the back of the car, but he hadn't returned, and all that met my eyes were empty seats and shadows.

After a half hour of this, I gave up on sleep and stared out the window. There was nothing to see, of course, nothing but darkness and an occasional point of light. From up ahead there came the sound of warning bells at a road crossing.

_The warning bells!_

* * *

_Akira and I were playing cards as usual, even though the lamps in the car provided barely enough light to see by. Akira was winning. He almost always won. "You should stick to alchemy, bro," he laughed as he gathered the cards together to shuffle them._

"_I'll beat you this time," I promised him with a smile._

_We were on our way home to Serra's Peak after a three-day trip to North City. We had been out of school for a holiday and wanted to take the opportunity to go to the nearest big city and have some fun. Now we were headed back on a train that would be getting there around midnight. We both knew we should be sleeping, but Akira never could get much sleep on a train, and I stayed awake to keep him company._

_The clatter of road-crossing warning bells started up ahead as Akira shuffled the cards. The train's whistle blew, and blew again, a loud and insistent sound. A shudder ran through the car, and we were thrown forward as the train braked suddenly._

"_What the—" my brother cried, and then a loud crash cut him off, and the car bucked off the tracks, rising into the air and flipping to its side. I was thrown into the window, the glass cracking and then shattering beneath me as the car landed on the ground and began to roll. Somehow, I stayed inside the car._

_Akira, beside me, was thrown out as the car tipped onto its roof. I watched him disappear, and then the car rolled back onto its side. Metal twisted and screamed…or was it the people I heard screaming…it was rolling again…the walls were buckling…something's on my leg…something heavy…it hurts so bad…_

* * *

"Mister! Hey, snap out of it!"

I gasped and opened my eyes to see the worried faces of the women who had been sitting near the front peering at me. I realized then that my hands were over my ears and tears were streaking down my face. My throat was a bit sore as well, as if I had been screaming.

The warning bells were long gone, and the train continued to roll peacefully through the night.

"I'm sorry," I said, face getting hot from embarrassment as I wiped away the tears on my cheeks. "I'm fine now. I didn't mean to frighten you."

One of them straightened, apparently satisfied with that much, but the other one shot her companion a look and turned back to me, unconvinced. "What's the matter?" she asked. "Do you need to see a doctor?"

I shook my head and sighed. I guess there was no way out of it. "It was just a…flashback," I told her. "I was in a train wreck last year, and this is the first time I've ridden on a train since then."

Their faces transformed into the sympathetic looks that I was so used to. "Oh, that must have been _awful_!" the first one said.

I tried hard not to grimace. Of course it was awful; I needed no one to tell me that. "I'm fine now," I assured them. "Don't worry about me."

Thankfully, they left me alone and returned to their seats, the second girl commenting about how she had heard of the wreck last year. "So many people were killed. That poor boy's lucky to be alive." As if I couldn't hear her.

Yes, I was lucky to be alive. Lucky to have stayed in the car while my twin was thrown out. Lucky that the wheel and axle that somehow was torn off and thrown through the car's floor landed on my leg instead of my head. Lucky that I survived only to lose my brother and dearest friend.

I didn't feel lucky at all.

I had found out later that an old man had been driving a cart across the tracks when the train was approaching. He had been half-blind and completely deaf, so he never heard the warning bells or saw the train's headlight. He had been the first to die as the engine plowed into his cart. The first car behind the engine had been the first to derail, and the others had followed, the destruction getting worse farther down the line. We had been in the fourth car to derail.

I shook my head, trying to push the memories back in their corner and think of happier things. But it seemed that nothing has been happy for me in a year, and the sight of Akira disappearing through the window and the car rolling back over with a sickening jolt played through my mind again as the lights in the darkness outside began to increase.

The train began to slow as it approached the Central City station, and I reached down to grab my bag, trying to keep back the fresh tears that threatened to fall. Now was not the time to be crying, not when I was about to meet total strangers who I'm going to live with for a few months. If not until I'm old enough to get a place of my own. I knew my father's temperament well, and I knew he wasn't going to take me back, no matter how much my mother begged him to.

The train jerked to a halt then, and I stood up and quickly made my way to the door, more than happy to be getting off. The two women let me pass them, giving me of their irritating sympathetic looks as we waited for the door to open. When it finally did, I jumped out, relieved to be on the ground once again. The thought of riding a train to Central City hadn't scared me at first, but I had been nervous after that flashback, and now I dreaded getting on a train ever again.

The air was cool, as was typical for a mid-spring night. Few people milled about the platform, and after looking them over, I realized I had no idea who I should be searching, or if anyone was even going to greet me here. With a sigh, I turned to the cargo car to pick up my bags.

"Hey!" came a call from behind. I stopped and turned to watch a boy about my age push past a couple of people and run up to me. He was strange, or at least I thought he was at first glance. He had smooth, dark skin and blond hair that fell into his eyes even as he tried to push the bangs away. Those eyes were a striking lavender, a rare color in most places and unknown entirely in Serra's Peak and the surrounding area.

He didn't seem to notice the way I stared at him as he bent over, trying to catch his breath. After a few seconds, he stood up again, studying me coolly as he held out his hand. "You're Ryou Bakura, right?"

I nodded, a little taken aback, but I shook his hand anyways. "Yes," I said. "That's me."

"I'm Malik Ishtar," he answered. "And you have the great misfortune of staying with me for the next few months."

The look I gave him must have been frightened, because he blinked and frowned at me. "Hey, it was only a joke. You're going to like it here; I promise."

I nodded, still feeling a little wary as a tall dark-skinned man cold hazel eyes and a topknot moved up beside Malik. "It's nice to meet you, Malik," I said politely.

"Great!" the lavender-eyed boy said with a yawn. "I'm sure you're tired and all from that trip, so we'll be going back to the house right away. There's not much to do in the city at midnight anyways, at least not for kids our age. Rishid." He turned to the man beside him. "Why don't you get Ryou's bags for him? We'll be heading back to the car."

The man, Rishid, nodded, and I pointed out my two bags to him before turning to follow Malik back through the station to his car. But before we went through the door, I glanced back and caught a glimpse of the creepy man from the train. He was staring at me, smiling in a superior way. Beside him was a figure in a trench coat, the brim of his hat pulled low over his face.

For some reason, the sight of them sent a chill through me. I turned around quickly and followed Malik through the door, berating myself for my foolish fears. Central City was a big place, after all. Chances were that I'd never see either of them again.

* * *

Aw, poor Ryou. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter; and see if you can guess who the creepy guy on the train was:) Oh yeah, that reminds me of one thing I should have mentioned earlier. ((sweatdrops)) This story is set fifteen years after the end of FullMetal Alchemist. So Ed's all grown up…or at least as grown up as he can get, hehe. And he'll be introduced soon enough. After all, it can't be FMA without the FullMetal Alchemist himself! Please review!

**Ranko Urameshi:** Heh, you didn't have to wait _that_ long. I meant to put this chapter off until after I wrote another chapter of AFT, but it called to me and told me to update, so here it is.

**tomboy101:** Of course he'll meet the brothers! Well, he'll meet Ed at least; and maybe Al later. Watch out for spoilers when that happens.

**unknown:** Hey, thanks! I'll look it up. And I can't watch it, because my dorm's free cable service doesn't include the Cartoon Network, and I can't pay for the extended stuff. ((shrugs)) I prefer the subs anyways. But I'll definitely search for that online encyclopedia thing.

**Winged Knight:** Heh, well, since this is AU, I decided to cut the insanity out of Malik's character. He's still a cold jerk to people he doesn't know, but he's a lot nicer than his Battle City version. And Ed will show up soon enough. :)

**yuffie510:** Right on the mark! Just don't tell anyone else. :)


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I may have been reluctant to leave my home at first, but by the time a year had passed, I was glad. This year in Central City, I was the happiest I had been since that fateful train wreck, and it wasn't because of the sights and opportunities offered by the capital city. Nor was it the chance to live free of my father's ever-domineering, controlling ways.

It was Malik Ishtar.

At first glance, he was cold, shunning everyone and thinking only of himself. And that was the way that most people thought of him. I could see it in their eyes as Malik passed them on the streets. And he didn't care one whit, either.

But inside, he was caring and protective, fun-loving even. He treated me carefully in the beginning, extending invitations to me but not pressing when I declined them. Always saying a kind word when he passed me in the hall, but never carrying the conversation further unless I showed signs of wanting to talk.

And I didn't talk much at first, but gradually I opened up, accepting offers to try a new restaurant or take a trip to one of the many entertainment centers for sports matches, concerts, shows, and the like. The trips on his motorwheeler were always nerve-wracking; he had a habit of driving fast and recklessly, and when one is the passenger on this narrow seat plopped atop two wheels, one gets rather fearful of one's life. But he never hit anything, and we always arrived at our destination in one piece, though I often had to take a second to steady myself as soon as I got off the thing.

Our friendship grew over the months as I opened up more and more, and he did likewise. And so he was the first to know when I discovered an ability I hadn't known I possessed. An ability that startled me, and even frightened me.

I was in the kitchen poking around when it happened. The day was hot, and the kitchen staff were on their afternoon break, so I decided to sneak down a find a snack. It wasn't anything new to me; I had been chased out of the kitchen by angry cooks many times growing up. Of course, I used to have Akira getting into trouble right beside me, but now I had to go alone.

The kitchen, like the rest of the house, was large and airy, white walls and tall windows making the most of the sunshine that poured in. I tiptoed carefully between two counters, staying away from the open windows. I couldn't hear anyone outside, but that didn't mean the cook wouldn't randomly pass by and see me.

It was times like these that I envied Yugi and Atemu. Sure, they weren't rich—in fact, they could rarely afford extra comforts—but their simple lives seemed so much better. No servants constantly looking after them, trying to keep them out of trouble, or rather, "having fun." And they could walk into their own kitchen and grab an apple any time they wanted.

I made my way to the fruit counter, intending to do just that. Grab an apple and get out. But I slipped a little on the polished tile floor—automail didn't have quite the same traction as real feet, after all. I managed to grab the counter and steady myself, but in the process I knocked off a teapot. The blue ceramic thing fell to the floor and shattered.

I froze. If someone had heard that, I was in _big_ trouble. Ishizu loved that teapot; she used it every time someone came over for tea. And it was expensive, too. That didn't disturb me much, though; such a cost was well within my price range. But it had been an heirloom, and that was where the guilt really made its presence known.

Of course, that was where alchemy came in. I looked towards the windows and the doors, making sure no one had heard the crash and come to investigate. After a few seconds of silence, I pressed my hands together, now searching for something to draw a transmutation circle with.

And froze again. Something happened when I pressed my hands together. A power loop. The energy transfer that marked the beginning of an alchemical transmutation. But that was impossible without a circle! I figured I was imagining things, but I knelt down anyways, pressing my trembling hands to the floor.

The pieces of the teapot flew towards each other, attaching to their mates and assembling themselves, the fractured joints bonding together again and smoothing out until after just a couple of seconds the teapot sat on the floor, whole again. I jumped back in shock, sitting against a counter and staring at the pot like it had done something wrong.

Then I heard the cook's voice, chatting merrily as he passed by the window, and that spurred me into action. I rose, picking up the teapot as I did so. After setting it down on the counter again, I made a beeline for the door, trying to be as quiet as I could be with bare metal feet. Once I reached the sanctuary of the hall, I let out a sigh of relief and headed for the back of the house, where the servants' stairwell and the shortest route to Malik's room was.

He was there, as usual, working to translate some book into Common. His knowledge of the world's more ancient cultures made him very popular at the library, even more so because he could read and write a few of the oldest languages. And Amestris had been investing a lot of time and money into research on old cultures. "Brown-nosing," my father had always said with a snort. "Trying to present a good face to the public and cover up the massacres of Ishbal and Lior."

I didn't agree with that, though I didn't dare say that to my father. The military hadn't been deployed in a long time, ever since Fuhrer Mustang had come into power. He didn't have the same ambitions as his predecessor, and he had settled agreements with all neighboring countries, even helping the survivors of Ishbal and Lior, sending contingents of soldiers to help with the reconstruction of the cities. His rule had brought peace and prosperity to the land. Why try to cover things up and "present a good face?"

Malik turned to me as I paused in his doorway, gasping for breath. I hadn't run quite that hard in a long time. "What's up, Ryou?" he asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I…" I started, struggling to find words. "I…you've got to see this."

Malik twisted his chair around to face me fully and frowned. "See what?"

Looking around, I spotted a clay vase sitting on a nearby shelf. It was nothing fancy except for the simple drawing of a mountain lion on the side, but it was an artifact that Malik liked. Grabbing it, I threw it on the floor, praying that this new power of mine would work a second time. Otherwise, I was facing one pissed off ex-best friend.

"Hey!" the lavender-eyed boy snapped, coming out of his chair. "Do you have any idea how old that was!"

I ignored him and crouched down, pressing my hands together and feeling relieved when I felt the same power loop as before. I touched the ground, and just like the teapot, Malik's vase reassembled itself.

Malik stared down at it, his jaw hanging open as angry protests died on his lips. I picked up the vase and held it out, biting my lip.

He took it, lifting his eyes from it to me as he did so. "No transmutation circle," he commented.

I nodded. "I…I don't know how. I thought it was impossible to do without a circle, but…"

"Well, I guess this makes you a genius!" Malik said with a grin as he walked over to put the vase back in its spot.

My face grew hot. "I am not! Geniuses understand what they do. I have no clue how I just did that."

"You must, on some unconscious level, at least." Malik turned back to face me, his tanned features serious. "I don't pretend to know a lot about alchemy, but I do know the basic stuff. Recognition, destruction, and reconstruction. Those are the three steps. The circle basically controls the energy used for those steps, right?"

"Yeah…" I nodded again, wondering where he was going with this.

"So maybe you've somehow figured out how to control that energy without the circle." He laughed, reaching up to scratch the back of his head. "I don't know. My sister would, though. Why don't you ask her when she gets home?"

"Because I'd have to tell her that I snuck into the kitchen for an apple and broke her favorite teapot."

We both shared a laugh at that as he sat back down at his desk. "Ask her about it," he urged again. "I'm sure she won't mind as long as her precious teapot is back in one piece."

* * *

I spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in Malik's room, listening to him as he quoted pieces of the book he was translating to me and explaining things about the people who had written it. It was interesting stuff, but I felt drained after the day's discovery, and somewhere along the line I allowed the sounds of the typewriter and his voice to lull me to sleep.

He woke me some time later with a sharp jab in the side. "My sister's home," he announced, giving me a fake scowl. "And you need to find your own bed to sleep in, lazy bum."

"Sorry," I answered with a yawn. "But there was this droning sound coming from the desk, and it wouldn't shut up, so…"

Malik poked me harder. "Up! She's downstairs waiting for you."

"Yes, Mom," I answered, jumping up and running out the door faster than he could throw a pillow at me. I slowed as I neared the stairs to the main foyer, the grin fading from my face. Malik's suggestion was a good one; Ishizu was well-known and quite accomplished in the field of alchemy. But to tell the truth, she intimidated me.

I never figured out why. She was calm, gentle, understanding, and forgiving. Much like my mother. Yet I always tread carefully in her presence. Maybe it was her reputation in my chosen field of study. Maybe it was the fact that she had agreed to take me in and she could throw me out if she so wished. Or maybe I was just easily intimidated these days.

I patted down my unruly hair nervously as I made my way down the stairs, trying to make it relatively decent with no luck. Ishizu was sitting in a comfortable maroon chair when I walked into the living room. She had a tray of tea in that same pot I had broken and a couple of cups sitting on the table in front of her.

"Good evening, Ryou," she greeted with her usual warm voice, gesturing at the chair across from here. "Malik tells me you snuck into the kitchen this afternoon to steal an apple and accidentally broke a teapot."

I winced. "Yeah," I admitted, lowering myself into the chair and staring at my lap. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be," she said. "I could have fixed the teapot even if you hadn't. But my little brother said there was more to the story. Please, tell me what happened." She poured tea into the cups as she spoke, and then picked up an apple from the tray, offering it to me with a smile.

I blushed, taking it but not eating it as I recounted the events of the afternoon to her. She listened attentively, sipping at her tea, and when I finished, she set the cup down and folded her hands in her lap, giving me a grave look. I fidgeted, a feeling of unease growing within me.

"Have you ever considered taking the State Alchemist Exam?" she asked after a minute slipped by.

I stiffened in surprise and dismay. "I don't want to join the military!" It was true that I believed it was changing, but soldiers were still generally disliked and unwelcome almost everywhere, and despite my efforts to keep my father's words from influencing me, I couldn't help but detest the military, if only a little.

"Of course not," Ishizu agreed. "And perhaps I am wrong for suggesting this, but I believe you could benefit greatly from the research materials reserved for State Alchemists. A whole section of the Central City Library is reserved for only them, and much of the materials include research and experiments by the most skilled alchemists in Amestris' history. If this new ability of yours disturbs you so much, perhaps you should research it, understand it better."

"There's research on this sort of thing?" I asked. I had never heard of anyone performing a transmutation without a circle before, and the idea that I wasn't alone in the world intrigued me.

"Of course," Ishizu replied. "Performing alchemy without a circle is uncommon, rare even, but it is not unheard of. In fact, the current head of the State Alchemist division can perform transmutations without a circle. He's a friend of mine; if you wish, I can talk to him tomorrow and get special permission for you to take the Exam this year. He was the youngest person to ever take the Exam and pass it, so he knows what it is like to be a young man in the military. He will go easy on you, I know."

She must have seen the doubt still on my face, for she continued as she stood up. "You don't have to decide tonight. Give it some thought and let me know your decision tomorrow. The military has changed a lot since the days of war your father has no doubt told you about." She left the room then.

I stayed in the chair, biting into the apple at last as I turned my gaze out the window. The sun had just set, and the west still glowed with a line of rose even as the stars came out in the velvety darkness overhead. The State Alchemist Exam…

For the first time in a year, I remembered the strange man on the train. I had balked at him as well when he had made the same suggestion. Yet now it seemed the best path to take. My mother would be disappointed to hear about it, and my father…well, he no longer cared. Why worry about him? I still didn't care much for the idea, but Ishizu had told me to think about it, and the more I thought about it, the less unfavorable it seemed.

I polished off the apple as the last of the sunset faded from the sky. Setting the core down on the tray, I walked out of the living room and back up the stairs to my bedroom, feeling like my life had taken the third large turn in two years.

_I sure hope it's for the better this time,_ I thought as I sat down in my window seat and stared out at the glittering lights of the city.

_For the worse is getting old._

* * *

And there's another chapter done. And yes, Ed's finally gonna show up in the next one. :) No more waiting for our favorite Alchemist. I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or FullMetal Alchemist. Keep the reviews coming, folks!

**Kyuumei:** Nope! He's gained a few levels in the past fifteen years. ((snickers)) You'll see! Thanks for reviewing.

**Reviewer:** Actually, it's very much the FMA-verse, only with Yu-Gi-Oh characters. Why? Well, that'll become apparent on towards the end of the story. And the tomb robber will make his appearance soon enough; don't worry about him. :) After all, I like him better than I like Ryou; there's no way I can leave him out!

**Sai-ryo Aura Feana:** Hehe, thanks!

**tomboy101:** Heh, thanks! As for your question, uh, well, kind of. I'm not going to say anymore than that; it'd be a spoiler. :)

**Winged Knight:** Nope, it wasn't the Crimson Alchemist, but this guy's also from FMA. And I'm not gonna say anymore, 'cause I'm guessing you haven't seen the end of the series, and to say anything else would be to spoilerize you. :)

**wingweaver:** Thanks!

**yuffie510:** Hehe, yes, Mustang-Taisa is gonna make an appearance. And yes, he's old, but I can't help that. :)


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The next day was overcast and slightly cooler, hints of the coming autumn in the wind. I stood at my window, staring down at the horse-drawn buggies and occasional automobile that passed by in the street below as I nervously thought about the upcoming brunch. My father had been an important man, of course, and he had entertained many other important people, but this was the _Head_ of the State Alchemy Division. I felt like I was out of my league.

"Relax, will you?" Malik said from his seat in my desk chair. "Colonel Elric's not a bad guy. In fact, I rather like him."

I refocused my eyes so that I was looking at his reflection in the glass rather than the view beyond and smirked. "_You_ like him? Then surely I'm worried over nothing."

Malik leaned back with a snort. "Make sure you insult his height at some point," he said, a mischievous gleam entering his lavender eyes. "The results are…interesting."

"Thanks for the tip, but I don't think I want to insult someone who just might become my boss in the next few months," I answered dryly. "That wouldn't be a very good first impression."

"Suit yourself." He shrugged. "But you're missing out on some fun."

I looked back down to the street and noticed that a sleek black automobile had pulled up to the front entrance of the mansion. "Ohhh, he's here!" I gasped, backing away from the window and patting at my hair as I whirled around. "I don't think I can go through this…"

Malik sighed. "Yes, you can," he answered calmly. "Quit acting like a girl and get downstairs to talk to him."

Nodding, I walked into the hall and to the head of the stairs, stopping there and gulping anxiously as Malik followed me.

"_Go_," he prodded, giving me a push. I grabbed the railing to keep my balance, giving my friend a small glare over my shoulder as I started down the steps. It wouldn't be fun to fall down them; I was lucky my automail made me bottom-heavy; it was hard to tip me over.

My steps slowed again as I reached the bottom of the stairs and turned toward the parlor. Despite my dislike of the military, I still respected it, especially the alchemists good enough to pass the exam and join it. And now I was about to meet the Head Alchemist himself, the most accomplished alchemist alive. My heart beat against the inside of my chest so hard that I thought it was going to burst out.

Ishizu rose from her seat as I entered the room, smiling warmly. "Here he is," she said. "Colonel, I'd like to introduce Ryou Bakura, the son of James Bakura. He's been staying with me for the past year."

I stepped forward, resisting the temptation to reach up and pat my hair as the man in the other chair stood up and turned to face me. He was at least two inches shorter than me, with blond hair almost as long as my own pulled back into a braid. He wore the blue military uniform, medals and all, with his silver State Alchemist watch attached to his belt with a silver chain and tucked into his pocket. I felt underdressed in just a dark blue button-down shirt and black slacks, but he didn't seem to notice as he stepped around the chair and held out his hand, golden eyes twinkling. "It's nice to meet you, Ryou," he said. "I'm Colonel Edward Elric, but feel free to call me Ed. I've heard you're quite the young alchemist."

"You _are_ short." The words slipped out before I knew what I was saying.

The effect was instantaneous. "WHO DID YOU SAY WAS SMALL LIKE A GRAIN OF RICE AND DOESN'T SHOW UP IN YOUR EYE!" Ed thundered in my face, causing me to back up and cringe.

"I'm sorry! I…I didn't really…say that…" _Damn it, there goes my good first impression. And my chance of taking the Exam._

Behind him, Ishizu was laughing. So was Malik, now standing in the entrance behind me. "Told you it was amusing," he said as he walked past. "Good morning, Ed. I see you've managed to scare the wits out of my friend already."

Ed glared at him and then turned his gaze back to where I stood, ready to bolt from the room. "I'll forgive you this time," he said, face softening into a smile. "Just don't let it happen again."

"R-right," I replied, still shaken by the outburst.

"Come now, Ryou, don't be shy," Ishizu said gesturing for me to come and sit in the free chair. "The Colonel may bark, but he certainly doesn't bite."

I nodded and walked over to the chair reluctantly, sitting down reluctantly and picking up a sandwich from the tray that rested on the coffee table. All four of us sat around that table, Ishizu to my right and Malik to my left so that I had to face Colonel Elric. Instead I chose to look out the windows behind Malik as I took a bite out of the sandwich, noticing that it had started to drizzle outside.

"So," the Colonel said, calling my attention back to him. "Ishizu tells me you have a talent for alchemy."

I nodded, choosing now to stare at my sandwich. "Yes, sir."

"That doesn't surprise me at all. Your father is a very good alchemist as well."

"You…you know my father?" Now I finally looked up at him.

Ed nodded, his expression grave. "By reputation. He used to be a State Alchemist, you know."

I blinked in surprise. "No, I didn't know. He…he never told me." _My father_? In the _military_?

"That's not surprising," the Colonel continued. "From what I understand, he gave his clock back right after the Lior massacre. Now he's very outspoken against the military. I'm rather surprised to hear that his son is considering joining up."

"W-well…" I faltered, feeling out of my league again. After all, I hadn't given the Exam much thought at all until yesterday, and now events seemed to be whirling at a pace too fast for me to keep up with. If I really went through with this, my life would never be the same. _Then again,_ I chided myself. _Life hasn't been the same ever since Akira died. This is just another step on the crazy road._ "Well, my father and I don't agree on many issues," I continued, feeling a little stronger. That was the truth, after all. "In fact I haven't talked to him in a year or so."

"Is that so?" Ed sat back in his chair, his golden gaze studying me with intensity. I fidgeted under the pressure of his stare, my nervousness returning tenfold. What was it he was looking for?

"What's your concentration?" he asked suddenly.

"S-Sir?"

"What area of alchemy do you specialize in?" he explained. "What have you studied the most?"

"I-illusion, Sir."

The Colonel raised his eyebrows, clearly impressed. Beside me, Malik frowned. "Illusion?" he repeated. "You can do that with alchemy?"

"Well, of course," I answered, turning to him and feeling a lot more comfortable. Finally, something I could handle in this nerve-wracking situation. "It's a simple matter of rearranging and shaping air particles to reflect light on a different wavelength, thus making it appear as if something were there when nothing is."

Malik held up his hands in surrender, already lost. "Forget I asked."

"Except that it's not so simple," Ed added. "In fact, it's the hardest branch of alchemy, short of human transmutation. I myself can't transmute more than a block of stone or something like that, and it never looks real enough to be convincing."

"What?" Malik said, exaggerating his surprised tone. "There's something the Great Alchemist Ed can't do?"

"I can always transmute your head into a watermelon," the Colonel fired back at him.

We all chuckled at that, and Ed grinned at me. "Well, it's about time you loosened up," he commented. "Now, how about showing us a trick?"

All amusement disappeared from my face. "A-a trick?" I stuttered. Ishizu hadn't told me to prepare for practical application! "Right now?"

"Sure!" Ed replied. "It doesn't have to be anything fancy; just something you're comfortable with."

"O-okay…" I got up and stepped to the right, settling on my knees on a clear spot of floor. Something I was comfortable with…the old kitten illusion. Yugi had had a kitten a few years ago, and I used to love watching it play with a small ball. Just before Akira had died, I had started trying to make illusions of it. The first ones had been barely recognizable as a kitten and didn't move at all, but over time I had gotten better at it. And now that I no longer needed a circle, it would probably be easier.

Closing my eyes, I called the memory into mind, picturing it as clearly as I could and adding my own details where the memory was hazy. After a few seconds, I was ready. I opened my eyes again and brought my hands together, feeling the power loop and then holding them palms down at shoulder level over the floor.

After a second, a snow white kitten with a tiny pink nose appeared, running in place over the floor as it chased and batted at a green ball. Its pale blue eyes were big, bright, and full of mischief, and the light gleamed off its fur. I couldn't help but gape at it. I had become good at making it _look_ real, but never before had I been able to make it _move_ real. Always its movements had been stiff, wooden, sometimes even missing the ball and chasing after nothing. Now it was smooth, flawless, the muscles playing under the skin with perfection, tail switching in excitement.

"_Wow_," Malik breathed, standing and walking around the gathering to get a better look. "I've never seen you do that before, Ryou."

"That's incredible," Ishizu said, also coming over with Ed. "To think anyone could master illusory alchemy this well…"

I felt my face growing hot at the praise. "It's easier without the circle."

"I'm sure it is, but that's still a hefty accomplishment," Ed said, studying my face again. I brought my hands down and ended the transmutation, allowing the kitten to dissolve into thin air as I fidgeted again. Why did he keep looking at me that way?

"I've been working on that for years," I said. "It's not like I could do any illusion I wanted at the drop of a hat."

"Still, you have a lot of talent," the Colonel continued. "Perhaps more than even me or my brother. I'll see what I can do about getting you into the State Alchemist Exam. That is, if you want to take it."

I stood up, and we all made our way back to our seats as I considered the proposal again. "Are you sure it's okay for me to do this?" I asked. "The normal age limit is eighteen, right? I'm only sixteen."

"Kid, I took the same exam and passed it when I was twelve," Ed answered dryly. "Trust me, you're plenty old enough despite the age limit."

"But what would I do in the military? I don't want to fight…"

"You don't have to; it's peace time. And even if it wasn't, I wouldn't send someone so young to the front lines. You'll be doing research most likely, and maybe a mission every now and then to the outer provinces to make sure everything's going smoothly. Nothing major, though."

I nodded, satisfied with that. "I was wanting to do research anyway. I hear that the library has far more resources in the State Alchemist's wing than in other parts."

Again came the piercing look. "You're not hoping to study the Philosopher's Stone, are you?"

I blinked in surprise. "No, why should I?"

"You'd be surprised how many people wish to join for that purpose," the Colonel answered. "Most of them have lost a loved one, and are searching for a way to resurrect them."

I froze inside, not daring to look up at him again. _He knows,_ something inside me said. _He knows what I've done._ I reached out to take another sandwich, hoping that no one noticed my hand trembling. That was impossible. He couldn't know that I had tried human transmutation. No one here knew, not even Malik. My mother hadn't told Ishizu when she first arranged for me to stay here, and she hadn't asked me. "I-it's forbidden research, right?" I said, wishing that I could stop stuttering. "I-I don't care much for doing anything illegal." I tried hard not to think of my failed attempt to transmute my brother.

"Right," Ed said with a small laugh, ceasing his probing gaze as he stood up. "The Exam is in two months; be sure you study. I'm sure you'll have no problem with the practical application part, but there's a written test and an interview as well. I'll send over some books that may help." He turned to Ishizu with a smile and bowed formally. "My time is short, Ishizu; I must get back to the capitol. I enjoyed brunch."

"Of course," Ishizu answered as they all stood. "Thank you for taking the time to come by and eat with us. I'm sure you had better things to do."

"Don't be silly, Ishizu," Ed admonished as he strode into the hallway, the rest of us following. "It's always a pleasure to keep your company, though I daresay your brother is another matter. Ryou, I look forward to seeing you again in a couple of months. Study hard." He let himself out and hurried through the rain to his automobile, where a chauffeur was already waiting on him.

"See you later, shorty!" Malik called out the door, and Ed paused long enough to make a face at him before climbing in. The lavender-eyed boy turned to me with a snicker as the automobile drove off into the dreary day. "I told you he was interesting."

"Yeah," I said, forced to acknowledge that much as we retreated back into the warm, dry house. "Why did he exaggerate so much when I called him short? I really didn't mean to…"

"Who knows?" Malik answered with a shrug. "He's always done that when someone mentions his height, or lack thereof. It's just a personality quirk."

"It seems he likes you," Ishizu spoke up, her lips turning up in a small smile. "Despite the rather bad first impression. And I'm impressed as well, Ryou. I wasn't aware you could perform that level of alchemy so well. What got you interested in illusory alchemy?"

I shrugged, blushing again. "My father told me once when I was little that it was too hard for me to ever accomplish, and I guess I took that as a challenge, because I studied it almost exclusively after that. And it was fun, watching things that weren't really there come to life in front of me."

"That's understandable," she replied. "Well then, I won't hold you two up anymore. You're free to do what you will for the rest of the day, but I expect you to start studying for the Exam tomorrow, Ryou."

"Yes ma'am. Thank you," I replied as she walked past us, heading deeper into the house.

"Awesome!" Malik said with a huge grin, heading to the music room, on the opposite side of the hall from the parlor. "Come on, Ryou!"

"W-wait, where are we going?" I asked, bewildered, as I caught up to him.

He turned to me with a grin as he pulled open the door on the other side of the room and led the way into the servants' hallway beyond, heading for the garage where the motorwheeler was stored. "You're going to be the second youngest person in history to ever take the State Alchemist Exam," he answered, that gleam of mischief in his eyes again. "We've got to celebrate."

"But it's raining!" I protested as he pulled the head protectors off their hooks on the wall and handed one to me. After that nerve-wracking brunch with Colonel Elric, I wasn't sure I was up to a ride with Malik on his motorwheeler.

"That just makes it more fun!" he answered. "Now put that helmet on and let's go!" He straddled the wheeler and started it, the engine's lour roar reverberating through the garage.

I sighed and strapped the helmet on as I climbed into the seat behind him, knowing that he wouldn't take no for an answer. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

Insert standard disclaimer and plea for reviews here.

**Kyuumei:** I'm glad you found it funny! I was aiming to lighten the mood of the fic a little with that last chapter. Not that that's gonna last long, mind you, but…anyways, I'm glad you liked it!

**Reviewer:** Oh, don't worry about yaoi. I don't like the stuff, and frankly there's far too much of it in the Yu-Gi-Oh section anyways. ((makes face)) The yami x hikari pairings are way too popular… And you're gonna get the series? Great! It's one of the best ones out there, trust me.

**tomboy101:** And now they've met:)

**Winged Knight:** Hehe, you're gonna get a lot more tidbits of information about the end of FMA if you keep reading this! Since it's set fifteen years down the road, it's full of spoilers. And yes, Mustang is a better person than King Bradley. Eh…you'll have to see the end of the series to find out why. :)

**yuffie510:** Of course Ed makes an entrance! I'm not gonna leave my favorite FMA character out of an FMA story! Hehe, clap-alchemy…that's a good name for it. I'll have to remember that.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The two months before the Exam flew by as if time had sped up, hurtling me forward to the next big step in my life. I spent almost every day studying under Ishizu's strict tutelage, learning the basic principles of the alchemical fields that I hadn't bothered to study closely in the past. She was hard on me, but I didn't mind much. Most of it was rather interesting, and I learned many things that could help me with my illusions.

The day of the Exam arrived long before I felt I was ready, though. It was late October, cold and windy, though thankfully the sun was shining. I glanced out the window at the blue sky as I pulled my brush through my hair, trying not to think about what I was about to do.

"If your hair bugs you that much, why don't you just cut it?" Malik said. He was standing in my doorway, fidgeting with impatience. "Then you wouldn't have to stand in front of the mirror all the time messing with it."

"I like my hair," I replied stubbornly. I didn't know why I preferred it long; I just did. And it gave me a reason to stall.

"Whatever," Malik answered with a sigh. "I'm sure it's as tangle-free as it can get now, so come on. You don't want to be late."

"Of course," I said with a sigh, though I didn't really agree. I'd rather be late; heck, I'd rather not go at all. I was far too nervous, butterflies beating against the insides of my stomach with increasing fury at the mention that it was time to leave. But I had to go. Colonel Elric had had to pull strings to get me into the exam, and I couldn't pay back his generosity by skipping out on the exam.

I set down the brush and picked up my brown coat as I walked over to the door, my nervousness increasing tenfold as Malik stepped out of the way and followed me down the stairs. "You'll do fine," he kept saying. "They won't fail someone who doesn't need a transmutation circle. Shoot, you could probably fail the written part, and they wouldn't even notice!"

"That's not the part I'm worried about!" I told him as we walked outside and hurried into the automobile at the end of the walkway. "I'm worried about the interview!"

"Why?" Malik gave me a funny look as Rishid started the auto's engine and pulled into the street. "All you have to do is answer their questions."

"I know," I replied, turning to the window and lowering my voice as I continued. "That's what I'm afraid of." I wasn't sure if he heard me and really didn't care. I didn't need him asking why I was so worried about the interview.

I was a lousy liar. There was nothing I could do to deny it. If the people conducting the interview asked anything about human transmutation, or even just failed experiments, I would be in deep trouble. The truth of what I had done would be written all over my face. What's more, I had heard that some candidates are required to have health inspections during the interview time. If I had to have one, the exam proctors would find out that my legs were automail. It'd be easy enough to simply say that I was in a train accident—that was the truth. But if they decided to check…and went to my father…

I shuddered. _Don't think like that. There's no reason why'd they check my story that deeply. Everyone knows about the Serra's Point train wreck. So many people died, and many more ended up like me. I'll be fine. I have to be!_

It wasn't long before the automobile slowed to a stop in front of the capitol building. "We're here," Rishid said, looking back at us.

"Thank you," I told him as I climbed out, Malik following. Rishid only nodded at me in his wordless way and started off again after the door shut.

"Only the candidates are allowed inside the exam room," my friend said as we turned to look up at the imposing white structure. Great banners with Amestris' crest, a white lion on a green field, hung from it, flapping in the wind. The people all around us rushed by, some merely trying to reach their everyday destination, though the vast majority were congregating in the capitol, all trying to escape the bite of the October air. We joined them, hurrying through the main entrance and into the grand entry hall. "That's where you need to go," Malik continued, pointing ahead to a set of double doors. Many people were filtering through them, stopping at the entrance to show their credentials to the military personnel that were stationed there.

"Th-th-the main legislative chamber!" I stuttered in disbelief. "We're taking the exam in _there_?"

"Yep!" Malik answered, pushing me forward with a hearty slap on the back. "Good luck, Ryou! I'll be waiting for you out here when you finish!" He grinned and waved as I looked back at him.

Sighing, I turned around and joined the flow, pulling my credentials out of my pocket and flashing them to the soldier who stood there. He nodded, and I walked in, staring around at the grand auditorium and wondering what to do next. Everyone else seemed to be taking random seats, and since there weren't any assignments that I could see, I did the same, choosing a place near the back, away from most of the others.

That's when I noticed who was overseeing the Exam. _Oh, no,_ I thought, tremors shuddering through me as I stared down at the massive desk at the front of the amphitheater. Behind it, calmly watching the candidates enter with cool black eyes, sat Fuhrer Roy Mustang. To either side stood two generals whom I didn't recognize, and at one end was Colonel Elric. He saw me looking at him and gave me a grin. I smiled weakly in return, not sharing one bit of the confidence he seemed to have for me, and slumped back in my seat as the doors behind me closed and the proctors began handing out the written tests.

* * *

"How'd it go?" Malik asked as I walked out two hours later. 

"I barely made it to the last question," I groaned in response. "That was much harder than I thought it would be, and it didn't help to have the Fuhrer himself staring around the whole time!"

"What, you didn't know he'd be there?"

I gave the blonde an incredulous look as we walked outside, aiming for a nice little restaurant across the street. "Are you kidding?"

"The Fuhrer oversees the Exam _every_ year!" Malik exclaimed as we crossed the street and headed into the warm shelter of the restaurant. "I thought everyone knew that."

"Not everyone lives in Central City," I replied dryly as we moved to an empty table and waited for the waitress to arrive. "That was nerve-wracking; does he oversee the interviews as well?"

"Yep. And the practical application." Malik paused as the waitress came up and took our orders. We both already knew what we wanted; we had become regular customers here. Once she was gone, he continued, "Don't be so nervous about it, Ryou. Even if it's the Fuhrer. Think of him as just a normal everyday guy, and don't feel so intimidated. The interview's just a bunch of questions, and the practical application will be a breeze with your skill at illusory alchemy. Hell, if I were you, I'd be breathing a sigh of relief that the worst part is over."

"Well, you're not me," I murmured as the waitress brought our drinks.

* * *

The interviews were being done in alphabetical order, so mine was one of the first. After we finished eating, Malik and I returned to the grand entry hall of the capitol and waited for the proctor to call my name. We didn't have to wait long; barely half an hour had passed when the woman came to the door of the interview room and called, "Bakura, Ryou." 

"That's you," Malik said with a smile. "Remember, it's just a bunch of questions. No reason to be nervous."

"R-right," I said as I stood up and made my way forward. My legs, being automail, didn't shake as they normally would, but I still found it difficult to put one foot in front of the other as I neared the interview room, this time a smaller conference room at one end of the entry hall.

"Bakura-san?" the proctor asked as I approached, and I nodded faintly, holding out my credentials. My terror must have been written all over my face, for she smiled as she nodded me through. "Do not worry," she whispered. "It is not so bad."

_Sure,_ I thought as I pushed through the door into the darkened room. _Not so bad. Unless the Fuhrer himself finds out what I've done._ Those thoughts flew from my head though as I studied the room before me. It was darkened so that I couldn't see the walls or the ceiling; only two lights provided illumination. One was centered on the interviewers' table, Fuhrer Mustang sitting in the middle, and the other on a curious golden chair, quite obviously my seat. I studied it in puzzlement, wondering how it was able to stay upright, or how I would be able to sit in it without falling over. The back and seat were made of an intricate swirling pattern, and it was held up by three slim legs, all of which were attached to the very center of the seat. Two of the legs were ramrod straight, holding the chair up side-by-side, while the third was flush with the first two until it reached the ground, where it angled out to rest against the floor an inch away from the others.

Then I noticed the floor itself and smiled. The chair sat in the exact middle of a transmutation circle; some kind of alchemical reaction was keeping it from falling over. It would support my weight just fine.

"Welcome," Mustang said, drawing my attention back to him. "Please have a seat. If you are a true alchemist, the chair will not reject you."

My nervousness returned full-force, and I forced my self once more to walk to the chair and sit down. It remained stable, as I had known it would, but my nerves still sang on the edge of panic, and I didn't relax at all. _The Fuhrer himself…is talking to **me**…_

"Now then," he spoke again, seeming not to notice my nervousness, or if he did, he ignored it. Ed stood to one side, and I was tempted to look to him for comfort, but I forced myself to keep my gaze steady on Mustang, somehow sensing that looking away wouldn't be a smart thing to do right now. He continued, "I suppose we should start with something simple. What made you decide to take the State Alchemist Exam?"

"I…" I blinked in surprise, unable to stop myself from looking down at the floor as I pondered the question. Why _was_ I taking this Exam? Everyone had told me to…everyone had said that it was the best course…

I almost shook my head. No, that was wrong. Sure, everyone had suggested it, but _I_ was the one to make the decision. Because… "I'm a scientist," I answered, bring my gaze back up to look straight into the Fuhrer's coal black eyes. "I want to know more, to learn more about this talent I have. The State Alchemists have access to more research materials and better laboratories than anyone else. And the more I learn about alchemy, the better I can use it to the benefit of this world."

Mustang blinked and smiled, and I breathed a huge mental sigh of relief, my nervousness abating somewhat. So far, so good. He seemed impressed.

The interview was easier after that, all the questions pertaining to alchemy, or how I would react in certain situations. It continued for about an hour, before Mustang came to the part I had been dreading all along. "That about wraps it up except for one last thing," he said as the generals sitting around him gathered the papers that they had been recording my answers on. "Do you have any health problems the military should know about?"

My heart started beating faster, and I took a shuddering breath, trying to calm myself down. "My legs are automail from mid-thigh down," I answered, trying hard not to think of what would happen to me if they knew why the left one was that way.

"I see," Mustang said. "May I ask what happened?"

"I…I was in the Serra's Point accident two years ago."

Everyone in the room winced. Even the Fuhrer. "I…see," he answered. "I remember that train wreck. Very nasty indeed. You're lucky to have survived." He nodded at me, face full of sympathy. "You're free to go now."

Relief flooded through me, making me feel almost giddy as I stood up, bowed, and tried not to run to the door.

"How'd it go?" Malik asked, coming up to greet me once I was safely outside.

"Better than I could have dreamed," I answered in a breathy rush. _He didn't ask! He didn't find out about Akira. Thank God…_

"Told ya!" Malik punched my arm lightly as we hurried outside to where Rishid was already waiting in the automobile. "Now come on. You've got to rest up for the practical part tomorrow."

* * *

The next morning dawned bright and slightly warmer, especially since the wind had calmed down. That was a good thing for me; if the practical exam was going to be held outside, as Ishizu had said it probably would be, then the wind would make my planned transmutation that much harder to pull off. I was transmuting air, and if the air was moving, the illusion would dissolve almost immediately. 

Malik came with me once again, offering his support even though I didn't really feel like I needed it now. I had passed the hardest part—the interview. The last bit would be a cinch. "Knock 'em dead, Ryou," he said as the candidates were ushered further into the capitol. He would be waiting in the grand entry hall, just like yesterday.

I nodded back at him with confidence and then turned to follow everyone else. The proctors led us through the maze of halls and offices and through a large pair of double doors and into the back courtyard. There we were greeted with a rather amazing sight. The middle of the courtyard had been altered to resemble a miniature landscape that reminded me strongly of my home. A large square had been cut into the ground. In one corner stood a tall pinnacle of rock, in the corner beside it was a mountain of ice that was just as high. Trees covered the corner across from the ice, and in the last was a deep pool of water. The middle was clear dirt.

"Welcome back, everyone," Fuhrer Mustang called, walking up to stand a few yards away from our group. "Today, those of you who did not submit research reports will be taking the practical application test. You may use any of the materials found here." He gestured at the landscape square. "Begin whenever you are ready." He stepped back then, falling silent and studying us with his sharp eyes.

The candidates looked among each other and shrugged, one finally going to draw a transmutation circle into the dirt with a nearby stick. He used only that dirt in his transmutation, forming a rather impressive life-size statue of some Fuhrer from a few generations back. I recognized him, though I couldn't recall his name. History had never been my strong point, after all.

One by one, everyone else took their turns, using the materials inside the square to create tall towers and fancy buildings and large balloons and fields of flowers. It took well over an hour, and by the time they were done, almost all of the materials were used. I hung back, observing everyone else and listening to the proctors' comments. They were looking at imperfections in the transmutations, the level of difficulty, and the candidates' stamina. All in all, it seemed like I stood a better shot than most of the others at passing this final phase.

Finally, after a rather cozy-looking cabin had been transmuted out of the last remaining trees (leaving the alchemist thoroughly exhausted in the process), the Fuhrer turned his gaze to me. "A pity you waited to go last, Bakura-san," he commented. "Few materials are left for you to work with."

I simply smiled, and looking past him, I could see that Colonel Elric was grinning as well. "You're wrong, Fuhrer-sama," I answered, unable to keep a note of pride out of my voice. "I have all the materials I need."

He merely gave me an 'impress me' look, and I moved a little closer, wanting to make sure all the proctors were included within the space of the illusion. The few candidates who were still here also drifted closer, probably curious as to what I'd do. After looking around and measuring proportions and obstructions, I closed my eyes and painted a mental picture of what I wanted. As soon as it was fixed in my mind, along with the knowledge of how to transmute the air to the proper wavelengths, I reopened my eyes and slapped my hands together, feeling the familiar power loop before spreading that energy out all around us.

The air shimmered, even seemed to flicker, as the scenery around us changed, the landscape area replaced by a large, lazy blue river, and beyond a desert wasteland. On the other side, the capitol building was gone, replaced by a large temple made of sand-colored stone and covered with colorful pictures. Thick columns stood on either side of the building's narrow door, and we all stood at the base of the steps that led to it. Just in front of the columns were statues, strange statues of beings with the bodies of men and the heads of animals, one a bird of some kind and the other a cat. Strange trees cast shade on the desert ground near the river, their thin, rough trunks branchless and crowned in long, thin, bladed leaves. I smiled. It was seamless.

Gasps of wonder echoed from everyone as they stared around at the ancient landscape that they were suddenly a part of. Even Mustang dropped his jaw in shock, and Ed whistled appreciatively. "Amazing," he said. "You must have spent a great deal of time on this. What place is it?"

I shrugged, lowering my hands and allowing the illusion to dispel. "A temple from an ancient southern civilization," I replied. "All that's left are the ruins. I studied the pictures of them and came up with my own image of what it must have looked like when it was first built." Malik had helped with details, of course, but there were still a few things that I had come up with on my own somehow. Like the strange trees. They just seemed to fit, and I didn't know why. It was something I couldn't quite put my finger on, but I dismissed it now as I had in the past.

"Impressive," the Fuhrer said. "Very impressive indeed. And no circle, eh?"

I nodded, watching in slight puzzlement as he exchanged a strange look with Colonel Elric. Then he turned and cleared his throat, and the conversations that had sprung up among the candidates quieted. "You are all free to go," he announced. "Your exam results will be sent to you starting tomorrow. If you don't receive them by the end of the week, come to the State Alchemist headquarters to request them. That is all." He turned on his heel and headed for the far side of the courtyard, where the doors to his offices were located.

I sighed and grinned, feeling as if a heavy burden had been lifted from my shoulders. The Exam was over at long last. There was a bounce to my step as I headed back to through the capitol to the grand entry hall, were Malik still waited with an expression of long-suffering boredom on his face.

"It's about time," he said as I walked up. "How'd it go?"

"The best it could possibly go," I replied as we started for the main entrance.

"Got that right," said another voice, and we turned to find Colonel Elric grinning at us.

"What's this?" Malik asked with a grin. "The Super Shorty himself has come out to compliment you, Ryou."

"Who're you calling a bean?" Ed fired back, though he didn't really take his attention away from me. "That was an amazing illusion you pulled off back there, Bakura-san. As good as or better than the kitten, I'd say."

"N-no, sir," I said, shaking my head. "It was easier. The kitten moved, which is extremely difficult to pull off with illusions. The temple was a still scene, and with steady illumination of the sun and the lack of wind, it was easier than I thought it would be."

"Modest," the Colonel said with a laugh. "Well, that's just as well. I'm fairly confident in saying you've passed the Exam, Ryou. Be seeing you around!" He gave us a small wave as he turned, and then he walked off through the crowd in the hall.

Malik laughed as we continued outside. "Way to go, Ryou!" he said. "If Ed thinks you passed, then if a pretty fair bet to say he's right."

"I know," I said, giddiness taking me over at the thought. "I never really thought I could pass it, either."

"You don't give yourself enough credit," Malik replied dryly. "Now come on. This calls for a celebr—" He stopped mid-sentence and frowned, staring at something across the street.

"Malik?" I asked. "Hey, Malik, what's wrong?"

He blinked and shook his head. "Nothing," he replied. "I'm just probably seeing things, but there's a guy across the street who looks just like you."

"Huh?" I turned, following his line of sight to the sidewalk outside the same restaurant where we ate yesterday.

And met a gaze I knew all too well. Suddenly, I felt very faint, only staying upright because of the fact that automail knees do not get weak. Those brown eyes, so familiar despite the malevolence that radiated from them, obvious even at this distance.

_No way…this can't be happening…it's impossible…_

I grabbed Malik's arm, needing it more for mental support than physical. This just…couldn't…be! He was _dead_, and not even _I_ could bring him back! But there he was, standing across the street and staring at me as if he had never gone.

"Akira…"

* * *

Ah, yes. That evil thing known as a cliffhanger. I'm sure many of you are confused now, but things will explain themselves in time. Meanwhile, I must get back to work on AFT, which I've had writer's block on for a while now, so don't expect another update too soon. Standard disclaimers and begs for reviews apply. 

**DarkTragedy:** I don't really mind having you as a stalker, and trust me when I say that I've had scarier ones. ((coughWylcough. coughNeassacough.)) I'm glad you enjoy it, and expect an update for AFT within the next couple of days. :)

**tomboy101:** Eh, at this point, I'd have to say the Elrics' past is worse. Ed and Al went through a whole _ton_ of crap in the series, one thing right after another. And as for Ed knowing what Ryou did…well, you'll find out!

**Winged Knight:** Ah, yes. ((smiles)) Ed is very interesting when people call him short. And I'm glad you won't be too spoilerized. :)

**yuffie510:** I haven't read the manga; I've only seen the anime as well. Heh, so I've made assumptions about the sequel, as you can tell. I just wish the sequel would come out soon. ((grumbles))


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Akira!"

Forgetting that Malik was even there, I sprinted down the steps, threading my way through the crowd and stopping at the curb to wait for a break in the line of cars.

Across the street, my brother began to run as well, though it wasn't towards me as I had anticipated. Instead he took off down the road and ducked into the alley beside the restaurant.

"Wait, Akira!" I cried, jumping recklessly into the street as I watched his back disappear. Behind me I heard the honks of several automobiles and the curses of Malik as he tried to follow me, but I was hardly aware of them as I dashed into the alley where I had seen Akira go.

It was empty, but that didn't deter me. No other alleys or paths branched from it, so I ran to its other end with all the speed in my automail legs. The street I emerged onto wasn't quite as busy as the last, and as I looked around, it was easy to spot Akira strolling down the other side of the road, as if nothing at all were wrong.

"Hey, wait!" I called, pausing just long enough to let a car pass. Akira whirled around, spotted me, and once again darted into the nearest alley. Biting my lip in hurt and confusion, I chased after him. As I reached the entrance to the alley and peered in, I just managed to see him turning left into a branching alleyway. I ran to the corner and stopped abruptly. This alley ran all the way to a street several blocks away, with many other alleyways crossing it. It would have been impossible to find Akira again…if he hadn't been peeking at me from around the nearest corner to the right.

He saw me looking at him and disappeared again just as Malik caught up to me, panting. I ignored him again, sprinting for the branch my brother had taken. I couldn't lose him; I had so many questions to ask! I turned the corner and stopped dead again.

Halfway down the alley was a high wooden fence with no gate or hole. It blocked the entire way and was too high to climb. I doubt I could reach the top of it even if I jumped. And I could jump quite high.

"What the hell?" Malik said as he came up behind me.

"He's…gone," I answered, just as puzzled and more than a little dismayed. "I don't understand. I saw him come down here."

"You sure?" Malik moved past me and pushed the wall gently, then harder, and finally kicking it. "This wall's as steady as they come, and the only way out of here is the way we came in. Unless he used alchemy…"

I shook my head. "No way. Akira couldn't do alchemy; he didn't have the talent." Bitter tears of frustration welled in my eyes as I stared at the barrier, and I blinked them back. Of all things that could have happened…of all the people who could have showed up…this was too much to believe.

"Y-you saw him too, right?" I asked.

Malik gave me a strange look. "Of course I did," he answered. "I pointed him out to you."

"So I didn't imagine him," I said softly, placing my hand against the rough wood planking just to assure myself it was real. "Maybe…a ghost…" That wasn't convincing in the least; I didn't believe in ghosts. But I was willing to believe anything at that point.

"Ryou?"

"Hm?" I turned back to Malik and cringed at the look on his face. It was the sort of look my mom used to give me when she knew I wasn't telling the whole truth about something.

"Who was he?" he continued. "Who was Akira?"

I stared at him for a full second before I remembered that I hadn't told him what had happened. As close as we had become, he knew nothing of my past, save that I was from Serra's Point. I doubt he even knew how I lost my right leg. I had kept so much from everyone here…hoping to bury my past, leave it behind forever. Well, that plan had just backfired in the biggest way possible.

I sighed, starting back the way I had come. "Why don't we go back home first? It's cold out here, and my story's a long one."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, we walked in the front door of Malik's residence, hoping to make it upstairs without being stopped. No such luck, though; Ishizu was waiting for us in the entrance hall.

"Finished at last," she greeted with a smile. "How well do you think you did?"

"He passed," Malik answered for me. "Can he tell you about it later, Ishizu? We need to talk right now."

"O-okay," she replied, confusion in her face as Malik grabbed my arm and dragged me to the stairs. But she must have caught on to the seriousness in her brother's tone, for she didn't ask any more questions.

"All right," he said once we were safely in my room with the door shut. "Ryou, _what_ the hell was all that about earlier?"

I cringed at his tone, though he didn't seem to notice. Not that it would matter if he did; I wasn't getting out of it this time. "I…that was my brother," I mumbled, sitting on my bed and proceeding to study the floor. "My twin brother, Akira."

"You didn't tell me you had a brother," Malik said with a frown as he pulled out my desk chair and straddled it.

"Well, that's because he's dead." I bit my lip as I looked up at his shocked expression. "Or…he's supposed to be."

"Well, make up your mind!" Malik exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. "Is he dead or not?"

"As far as I know, he's dead!" I snapped back. "I watched him get crushed under the train we were riding in during the Serra's Point accident! Why else would I be so shocked to see him standing across the street earlier?"

Now it was Malik's turn to wince. "I…didn't know you were in the Serra's Point accident," he murmured, looking off to the side as he folded his arms on the back of the chair and rested his chin on them. "You never told me."

"It's…not something I like to remember." I fell to my side on the bed and then rolled onto my back to stare at the ceiling. "I saw him die…there's no way he can be alive now…unless…"

"Unless what?" Malik asked, picking up on the unfinished sentence even though my voice was little more than a whisper.

"N-nothing," I answered, cringing again. If there was one thing worse than watching my brother die, it was my failed attempt to resurrect him. And that was one subject I did not want to _ever_ talk about again.

"You're a bad liar, and you know it, Ryou. So why do you try?"

I sighed and turned my head to face the window. "Because I don't want to talk about it," I replied, hoping he'd get the hint and leave me alone.

"About the train wreck? Or about something else?" I could see Malik's reflection in the window; he was giving me that narrow-eyed glare that would make anyone shudder. Including me.

"Do we have to talk about this now?" I asked, closing my eyes in an attempt to get away from that glare.

"Yes, we do." I could feel his eyes boring into the back of my head anyways. "Your brother, who has been dead for two years, was staring at us from across the street yesterday, and I'm rather curious as to how and why. And I know you are, too; you _have_ to be. So if whatever you're hiding has anything to do with this, you'd better spill it. Now."

I flinched. There was no way around it now. Sitting up, I kept my head down, staring at my legs so I wouldn't have to meet Malik's gaze. "I tried to resurrect him," I mumbled.

"What?" he asked, a note of confusion in his voice.

With a sigh, I turned my head to finally meet his eyes and spoke louder. "I tried to resurrect him using alchemy. Human transmutation, you know."

Malik's face was an interesting study of emotions. Horror, wonder, sympathy, and curiosity all flashed across it in rapid succession, giving me no clue as to which was strongest. "Y-you can do that?" he asked hesitantly.

"No," I sighed, flopping back down. "I can't. No one can; that's why it's forbidden. I'm lucky I didn't die…all it took was my one remaining leg. And the…the creature that was there, when it was over, that wasn't my brother. It wasn't even human."

At least five minutes passed as I stared up at the ceiling, unwilling to look back at my friend. After taking the time to let what I had said and all its implications sink in, he finally spoke again. "Dear…_God_, Ryou, that must have been awful. D-do your parents know?"

"Of course they do," I answered dully. "How else do you think I ended up here? My father disowned me."

"Oh." I didn't have to look over to know Malik was flinching; I could hear it in his tone. "What about my sister…does she know?"

I shrugged. "I don't think so. If she does, she's never mentioned it to me. And I've never brought it up around her."

"Oh," Malik said again. "So I shouldn't either?"

"I'd appreciate it."

He nodded. "Okay, I won't. Now back to our problem—how is Akira still alive? Do you think that maybe you succeeded after all?"

"I-I don't know," I answered. "I don't see how…when I first did the transmutation, there was a…a creature there. It…kind of looked like Akira, but it wasn't. It couldn't be." I shivered at the memory.

"So…maybe it was incomplete or something. Maybe you really did succeed—it just took a little time." Malik's eyes were full of hope now as he theorized. "It's been over a year, right? Maybe now the transmutation's complete, and Akira came to find you."

"If that were true, then why did he run away?" I asked miserably. "And why was he giving me such an angry look before that? It looked like…like he hated me…"

Malik sighed. "I don't have any answers for you there, man. So, you don't think that my theory's true?"

"Alchemy doesn't work that way," I said, picking at the blanket I was sitting on. "At least not in my experience. If it's not impossible, it's close to it."

"So that puts us back at square one, and I'm out of ideas." Malik stood up and stretched. "And Ishizu no doubt wants to hear all about the exam, so why don't we talk about this later? After we've had some time to think about it some more."

"Sounds good to me," I answered, also standing up. "I'd rather not think about the past right now anyways."

* * *

I was in for a big surprise the next morning when I woke up. Or rather, when Malik banged on my door and woke me up.

"Hey!" he yelled as I rolled over groggily and shoved my pillow over my head. "Get your lazy self up! You've got visitors."

_Visitors?_ my mind questioned, bringing itself to a state of full awareness despite my desire to remain in bed. _I haven't had visitors since I came here; who in the world would want to see me now?_

I pondered over it as I pulled myself out of bed and stumbled over to the drawers for a clean change of clothing. "I'm up!" I yelled in irritation at Malik as I pulled on a pair of brown pants and reached for a white shirt.

"Took you long enough," he grumbled in reply.

I only rolled my eyes and began brushing my hair. "I'll be out in a minute. Who's here, anyways?"

Malik opened the door and stuck his head in long enough to smirk at me. "You'll have to come down and find out," he answered.

I resisted the urge to throw the brush at him and pulled it through my hair a few more times before setting it down. "It's not anyone important, is it?"

"Depends on what you mean by 'important,' but what you're wearing is fine, if that's what you want to know."

I frowned and walked into the hall, rather irritated with his riddles. He must have noticed my annoyance, for he gave me one of his mischievous grins as I walked past him towards the stairs. _Great, I hope it isn't Colonel Elric. I'm going to kill Malik if it is._ I could feel the butterflies beginning to beat against the sides of my stomach as I thumped down the steps.

But when I reached the ground floor and turned into the living room, it wasn't Colonel Elric waiting on me at all. "Hey, Ryou!" Yugi Mutou called cheerfully at the same time that Atemu smiled and greeted, "Long time no see."

"Y-Yugi," I answered in pleasant surprise. "Atemu!" And beyond them, a third, far more wonderful face. "Mom…"

She smiled at me, the sweetest expression I had ever seen. "Hello, son," she said.

The words were barely out of her mouth before I flew at her and flung my arms around her in the tightest hug I had ever given. She laughed softly as she stumbled back a step, returning the hug with equal force.

"I'm not sure how I feel about you joining the military," she said as she pulled away. "But if you think this is the right path for you, then I wish you the best."

"Thanks," I answered with a slight blush, already feeling much better about my decision to take the test. If my mom supported me, it had to be right. As I turned back to face my old friends, I asked, "What are you all doing here?" For over a year I had been gone, and now for them to show up so suddenly was rather strange.

"We heard you were taking the State Alchemist Exam," Atemu explained. "So we came by to see how you fared."

I looked at Yugi, who merely grinned and nodded, and then back to my mother, who smiled faintly. "Ishizu called and told me what was going on," she explained. "She offered to let us all stay the day and night after the exam was finished."

"Does Dad know you're here?" I blurted without thinking.

She winced ever so slightly and looked off to the side, and I bit my lip, berating myself silently for asking. "He knows I've come to Central City," she answered, meeting my gaze again. "He doesn't know why."

"I…see," I replied, dropping my eyes to the floor.

"Enough of the depressing stuff," Yugi interjected before the awkward silence could get too long. "Ryou, when do you get your exam results back?"

"Sometime in the week," I answered. "Probably today."

"Today it is," Ishizu announced as she came into the room, followed by Malik. She stopped and bowed, smiling at my mother. "A pleasure to see you again, Maya. It's been quite a while."

"Indeed it has," Mom replied. "Perhaps I should take the time to come and visit more often."

"That would make us all very happy," Ishizu said. "In the meantime, your results have arrived, Ryou. Go ahead and see what they are." She held out a plain white envelope.

I took it, hands trembling as I worked it open. I was nervous enough about this; it didn't help to have everyone in the room staring intently at me. Especially Malik, he was hanging over my shoulder. "Would you give me room to breathe?" I said, elbowing him back.

"Pushy," he murmured, rubbing the new sore spot on his abdomen as I pulled a folded sheet of paper out of the envelope. My hands shook harder as I read it, barely able to believe what it was saying. _I, Fuhrer Roy Mustang, do hereby declare Ryou Bakura a member of the military…rank of Major…given the name Illusory Alchemist…_

Malik caught the paper as it fell from my hands, a huge grin spreading across his face as he read it for himself. "He passed!" he announced to everyone else, obviously guessing that I couldn't use my voice at that particular moment.

Everyone let out a cheer, crowding around me with many hugs and pats on the back. I didn't respond, too stunned to know what to do. After about a minute of bewilderment, I heard Malik's dry voice cut through the myriad of congratulations, "Give the man some room to breathe."

Yugi, Atemu, and Mom backed off at that, allowing me to regain a bit of dignity. "Illusory Alchemist, eh?" Atemu said. "Fitting."

I nodded, a blush creeping across my face as the contents of the letter finally began to sink in. "I like the sound of it."

"Says here that you have to report to the shrimp's office tomorrow for your first orders," Malik said, continuing to skim through the letter. "But in the meanwhile, Major Bakura, it's party time!"

My eyes widened, and I felt my face turn bright red. "D-don't call me that!" I protested.

"You might as well get used to it," Ishizu said mildly. "It's your official title now. But I believe my brother is right. This calls for a celebration."

I grinned at everyone else as she left the room to go make preparations. Despite the strange occurrence of the previous day, things were finally looking up in my life.

* * *

Since this website's a bitch and booted my most popular story for something about author's notes, I'm afraid I have to ditch the reviewer responses. I appreciate the reviews, though, and I'll still answer questions. I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or FullMetal Alchemist. Please review.


	8. Chapter 7

**This chapter has a major spoiler alert for the end of FullMetal Alchemist.**

Chapter 7

The party was over the next day, when my mother and friends had to return to Serra's Point. I saw them off on the train platform early in the morning. "I'm proud of you," Mom whispered as she gave me a good-bye hug. "Take care of yourself, and don't get in too much trouble."

"I won't," I promised as she let go and stepped up into the passenger car. I backed up as the train whistle blew and the conductor came by, closing the doors. A few seconds later, it began moving, and Yugi promptly stuck his head out his window.

"Bye, Ryou!" he called with a wave. "Come home to visit sometime!"

I forced a smile and waved back as the train picked up speed. "I wish it were that easy," I said to myself, watching Yugi disappear as his car rounded a turn. He had been a good friend, but my father's ire was worse; I didn't dare return to Serra's Point for any reason, and Yugi's simple invitation was a painful reminder of why.

I shook my head and turned back to walk through the station to where my cab was waiting in the street. I had other things to look forward to today. "I need to go to the Capitol," I told the driver as I settled into the cab's back seat. He pulled away from the curb and joined the midday flow on the streets, and I settled back in the seat to watch the city pass by.

A year and two months I had been here now, yet it still didn't feel like home. I sighed, sorely missing the high mountain peaks and fresh air of Serra's Point. Maybe I would go back to visit, and what my father thinks be damned. That thought made me feel a little better, though some guilt came with it. Not too long ago, my father's opinion had mattered more to me than anything else in the world. But Akira's death had changed me, had changed us all. Father hadn't even looked at me for weeks after the accident…

I shook my head a second time to rid it of the unpleasant memories as the cab pulled to the side of the road in front of the Capitol. "Thank you," I said to the driver, handing him the money for the fare and a little extra as a tip before I climbed out.

The cab drove away as I started up the front steps nervously. It was just now really hitting me. I was in the military. As a Major, no less. Colonel Elric had told me when we first met that I'd be doing mostly research, with a few missions every now and then. But what would I have to do on those missions? And what if Amestris went to war? The possibility of that was unlikely, but I couldn't help but think about it. After all, it was the military's job to fight a war. And the State Alchemists were considered the best soldiers.

Those worries prevailed in my mind as I walked into the main entrance hall and turned to the right, making my way to the State Alchemy division. Several people, politicians, bureaucrats, and the occasional soldier, hurried past me, all intent on their destinations or their conversations and paying me no mind. Somehow, that made me feel out of place, and I began to wonder if I had gotten in over my head by taking the Exam.

Turning into a side hallway, I began counting the doors I passed, watching for the office number that had been indicated in yesterday's letter. As it turned out, there was no need for my caution. Colonel Elric's office was at the end of the hall and had his name in big letters on the door. I stopped in front of it, patting down my hair nervously with my left hand as I knocked softly with my right.

"Come on in," the Colonel called from within, and I straightened up, taking a minute to compose myself before entering the office. I opened the door and stepped in to see that someone else was already there.

"S-sorry," I stuttered, a little embarrassed. "I didn't know you were already in a meeting. I-I'll come back later."

"Don't bother," Ed said before I could step back towards the door. "He was just leaving. Isn't that right?"

I winced at the Colonel's harsh tone, but as I studied his face and noted the glare he was giving his other visitor, I realized that his anger wasn't directed towards me at all. I switched my curious stare to the stranger, a man with long black hair. _That's funny,_ I thought as the skin at the back of my neck began to crawl. _Why does he look so familiar?_

Then the man turned to me, a wide grin on his pale face, and I remembered him. He had been the strange man on the train over a year ago! I had to suppress a shudder at the realization.

"So," he said smoothly. "A State Alchemist after all, eh? Congratulations."

"Wrath!" Colonel Elric snapped, standing up. "Leave him alone and get out!"

"As you wish," the man said. He turned back to Ed with a smirk, bowed, and then walked out of the office.

As he disappeared into the hall, the Colonel's face melted from anger into a mix of irritation and resignation. "You mind closing the door before you sit down?" he asked.

"No, of course not," I answered, turning to do just that. The door clicked shut, and I went back to the desk, sitting nervously on the edge of one of the two chairs in front of it. "Who was that?" I asked, more than a little unnerved by the meeting.

"Wrath," the Colonel said as he leaned an elbow on the desk and propped his chin in that hand, drumming the wood with the fingers of his other hand. "We go back a long way, he and I…" He gave me another piercing look. "You've met him before, haven't you?"

"On the train, when I first came to Central City," I confirmed, and then I had to ask, "What kind of name is 'Wrath?'"

Ed sat back and waved a hand dismissively. "Long story, and confusing, too," he answered. "Just try to avoid him in the future, okay? He's bad news."

"No problem," I said. I didn't want to ever seen the creepy man again, anyways.

The Colonel nodded, a smile crossing his face as he stared at me. "You passed the Exam," he stated needlessly. "Welcome to the nuthouse."

That one statement put me at ease more than anything else could, and I laughed gently. "And here I thought I was getting away from the nuts," I returned.

"If you're talking about Malik, then I fully agree that he's a nut," Ed said, opening a drawer. He pulled something silver out and tossed it to me. I caught it deftly and looked at it. A silver watch it was, with a bas relief of a lion, Amestris' crest, on the front. Flipping it open, I found that it already showed the proper time.

"Your watch," the Colonel explained when I looked back at him. "Proof that you are now a State Alchemist."

I remembered something that my father had once told me then. "Does it really amplify an alchemist's power?" I asked, closing the cover and lifting it by the chain to watch it swing back and forth like a pendulum.

Beyond the silver flash, I noticed Ed's face tighten ever so slightly. "It used to," he replied. "But not anymore."

I decided then to drop the matter and quickly clipped the watch's chain to my belt. "Thank you," I said, uncertain of whether to go or stay.

Fortunately, the Colonel solved that dilemma for me. "Well, like your letter yesterday said, you get to go on your first mission right off the bat," he informed me. "Which means be ready to leave tomorrow morning."

"L-leave?" I said, somehow managing to keep my voice from squeaking in surprise. "Where am I going?"

"Don't look so nervous," Ed laughed. "I'm not going to do what Mustang did for _my_ first official mission. You'll be going to Rizenbul with me to do a standard inspection. The outpost there is small, and not much goes on. It'll be an easy first assignment."

"Mustang?" I asked. "You mean the Fuhrer? Wh-what did he do?"

The Colonel shrugged. "Handed me the watch and told me to go inspect the coal mines at Youswell. And that's all. Didn't tell me how or what to do."

I was very glad now that Mustang was no longer head of the State Alchemy division. At least, I was until I realized that the same man was now running the whole military. Trying to drive that disturbing thought from my mind, I gave Colonel Elric a smile and hoped it didn't look too strained. "Okay. I'll be ready to go bright and early. What time does the train leave?"

"Seven-thirty." Ed stood up, signaling an end to the meeting, and I did likewise. "I'll see you then," he continued, reaching across the desk to shake my hand. "Don't bother wearing anything formal; Rizenbul's citizens don't care much for fancy clothes. And your military uniform won't arrive for another week or two, anyways. Don't bother packing, either; Rizenbul's not far away, and we'll be back before sundown."

"Thanks," I said, shaking his hand and turning to leave. I had just made it to the door and opened it when Ed spoke up again.

"By the way," he said with a grin. "Welcome to the Amestris Military."

"Th-thanks," I repeated, giving him a small smile in return. Then I stepped out and closed the door behind me. Seven-thirty in the morning. That's when the next chapter of my life would truly begin.

* * *

The morning dawned with no sun in sight. Clouds covered the sky, threatening rain, and the wind blew chill from the north, a reminder that winter was fast approaching. I stuffed my hands in my coat pockets and huddled my shoulders against that wind as I stood on the train platform, waiting for Colonel Elric to arrive.

"Nervous?" Malik asked, rubbing his hands together as he waited with me.

I shook my head. "Not really, no. The hard part's over with, in my opinion. And I've seen the military barracks at Serra's Point being inspected; there's really not much to it."

"Oh?" Malik raised an eyebrow. "And what were you doing at the military barracks? I thought your father hated the military."

"He does," I answered with a smile. "So naturally, if we wanted to get into trouble, Akira and I would sneak down to the barracks. The soldiers there were nice, despite what our parents said. We made a few friends there, before Father found out where we were going and gave us the beating of our lives."

"Sounds painful," Ed remarked from behind us, startling us both.

"It was," I said after whipping around and taking a deep breath to calm myself down. "Very painful."

The Colonel yawned and stepped past us towards the train. "So if your dad hates the military so much, why'd he let you join?"

"He didn't have a say in the matter," I answered shortly, not wanting to get into a discussion about it.

Fortunately, Ed didn't press the issue. "Well, come on," he said, jumping into the passenger car as the train whistle blew. "It's almost time to leave."

I took one step towards the train and then froze, eyeing the steps in sudden fear as memories filled me of the last time I had ridden a train. What if I broke down like I did the last time I heard the warning bells? Or worse, what if the train wrecked?

That thought gripped me and held me rooted to the platform, even as the final whistle blew again. _It won't wreck,_ I chanted to myself. _It won't wreck. Train wrecks are too rare. It won't wreck._ But those thoughts were no competition for the awful memories that flooded my mind.

"Major, come on," Ed said, his expression a cross between worry and irritation. "That's an order."

"Get going, Ryou," Malik chimed in as the train began to move. Then he must have decided that it was too late to persuade me, for he suddenly shoved me forward hard.

"Hey!" I cried, trying to turn around, but Colonel Elric grabbed my arm and dragged me onto the train as it picked up speed.

"Bye!" Malik yelled, his mischievous grin widening on his face even as he disappeared from view.

I tried to jerk away from the Colonel as he pulled me up the last step, but his grip was far too strong. "What was that about?" he snapped.

"Th-the train," I answered, panic invading my mind. "It's going too fast."

Worry returned to Ed's face at those words, though he still looked angry. "Too fast? For what?"

"I-i-it can't slow down." Even as I spoke, the sound of warning bells reached my ears, driving me further into irrational terror. "S-someone's on the track ahead of us, and it can't slow down!"

He finally released his bruising grip on my arm, only to slap me hard with the same hand a second later. "No one's on the track in front of us," he said as the warning bells flashed past and began fading into the distance behind us.

I put a hand gingerly to the left side of my face, which throbbed from temple to cheekbone from that slap. It had calmed me down; for that much I was grateful. But still… "Did you have to slap me with an automail hand?" I asked.

The Colonel had the grace to look mildly surprised, and I answered his question before he could ask it. "Flesh and blood does not hurt quite that much. And I heard the gears whirring for a second."

"Come on," Ed said shortly. "Let's find a seat." He turned and scowled at the rest of the half-filled car. "What are you looking at?" he snapped as he started down the aisle, and all the people returned to whatever business they had.

My face reddened as I followed the Colonel to a seat near the middle of the car and sat down across from him. I hadn't meant to make such a big scene, but then I hadn't planned on panicking the way I had.

"You know, not every train derails," Ed commented after a few minutes of silence, during which time I tried my best not to look out the window or think about where I was.

"I know," I answered, grateful for a little conversation. "And it's strange. I didn't freak out like that when I came to Central City. At least, not until I heard the warning bells."

"Memories can be odd like that." Ed yawned again and stretched. "A train wreck must be quite the traumatic experience to live through."

"It is." I glanced out the window at the hills rolling by and found that watching the scenery wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be.

The Colonel seemed to take that hint, and he changed the subject. "You told me yesterday that you had met Wrath before. What did he say to you then?"

I shrugged as I mulled over the question, trying to remember. "Something about taking the State Alchemist Exam and learning how to make the Philosopher's Stone. That's all I really remember. I didn't think much about it at the time; I didn't want to be in the military back then, and the Philosopher's Stone is just a legend."

"I see," Ed replied, scowling slightly as he stared out the window.

I blinked nervously, hoping I hadn't said anything wrong. "S-sir?"

Ed glanced back at me and gave a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it, Major," he said. "I'm just wondering what that man is up to now."

I decided it was his business and didn't reply, instead settling for staring out the window as rain began to fall hard outside, obscuring most of the view. But something was bothering me, and had been bothering me since the Exam ended, and after only a few minutes, I broke the silence between us. "Colonel?"

Ed opened one eye and gave me a mildly annoyed look. "Yeah?"

"H-has there ever been a case of…of human transmutation…that has succeeded?"

The Colonel opened his other eye and sat up straight, his expression suddenly serious. "Why are you interested in that all of a sudden?" he asked.

"I…" I hesitated, trying to find a good way to put what I was thinking into words. "I…saw someone the other day, right after the Exam. Someone who died a long time ago."

"And you think someone resurrected this person?"

I shrugged. "It's the only explanation I can think of, except that I've never heard of anyone successfully doing it." _And I know I failed…_

Ed crossed his arms and gave me his scrutinizing stare. After a few seconds of discomfort on my part, he spoke up again. "Have you ever heard of Homunculi?" he asked.

I blinked in confusion at the change in subject. "Homunculi? Fake humans? That's just a legend, isn't it?"

"As much a legend as the Philosopher's Stone. And any rumors of successful human transmutation." The Colonel sighed at my confused expression and slouched back down in the seat. "There's always a bit of truth behind legends, Ryou. You'll find that out eventually if you study them closely enough. But sometimes the truth is too much to handle." His golden eyes bored into mine with an intensity that frightened me. "If I were you, Major, I would forget about this dead person you think you saw. It might have just been someone who looks like him or her."

"Yes, sir." I returned to staring out the window as he closed his eyes again. Forget about seeing Akira…or whoever that was. Forget about the sin I had committed against him. Bury my past. That's what Edward Elric's advice amounted to. I sighed as the rain continued to drum against the window. I had been trying to do that all along, but Malik still found out.

After a few seconds of thinking, I decided it didn't matter. Even if Malik knew, there was no more reason to bring it up. I had already taken the first steps to burying my past; now all I had to do was live for my new future.

* * *

Colonel Elric hadn't been kidding when he had said Rizenbul was close by; only three hours had passed when the train rolled to a gentle stop at the farming village's station. Ed had dozed off some time before, but he awoke before I had a chance to poke him. "Welcome to the middle of absolutely nowhere," he said as he stood up and stretched again. "Rest assured that this assignment won't take long."

"Yes, sir," I replied as I hopped into the aisle, eager to get off the train as quickly as I could. I made my way down to the door quickly and uninhibited, since apparently the Colonel and I were the only people getting off at this stop, at least in our car. And once I got outside, I found out why.

Rolling plains and farmlands greeted my eyes as I stood on the platform, shielding my face from the persistent drizzle. Only a few scattered farmhouses and barns dotted the landscape, none of them close enough to the others to even remotely be termed a 'village.' "Where's the town?" I blurted.

The Colonel laughed as he joined me on the platform. "I told you, it's the middle of nowhere," he answered. "Rizenbul isn't so much a village as it is a collection of farms that decided they wanted some kind of representation in the Amestris legislature. So they banded together and began calling themselves Rizenbul." He led the way to the other side of the platform as the train whistle blew and jumped off, not bothering to go through the small station at one end.

I followed, huddling my shoulders against the persistent cold wind as he led me down a wide dirt path. Normally I didn't mind rain, but the drizzle combined with the wind was enough to make me feel rather miserable about my first day on the job. And there weren't any military barracks in sight. "Ah, Colonel?" I asked hesitantly after a few minutes.

"Eh?" he grunted, half-turning as he walked to give me a mildly annoyed stare.

"H-how far from here are the barracks?"

"Quite a ways." Ed turned back around and kicked a pebble. "Especially on foot. Someone was supposed to meet us at the station with a wagon, and I'm wondering why he didn't. So we're going to stop by his house so I can chew him out."

"I see," I answered, smiling in spite of myself.

We didn't have to do that, however, for a mule-driven wagon topped a hill just in front of us only a couple of minutes later. "Nii-san!" yelled the man on the front seat when he spotted us. "Welcome back!"

Ed's face transformed into a huge grin, despite his words earlier. "Al!" he cried in response, running the rest of the distance to the wagon and jumping onto it to hug the man. I followed at a slower pace, a little curious.

"Major Bakura, meet my brother, Alphonse," Ed said, releasing his hold on the wagon driver as I came up to them. "Al, this is Ryou Bakura, our newest State Alchemist."

"A pleasure to meet you," I said as I climbed clumsily into the back of the wagon.

"Same here," the brown-haired man said cheerfully, watching me with soft gray eyes. "Sorry I wasn't on time to pick you up. The river was threatening to bust a section of the levee, and the farmers called me up in a panic to go fix it."

"Don't blame them," the Colonel said as he settled into the back of the wagon beside me. "Anything else interesting happen around here?"

"Well, the Warners' child was finally born last week, but other than that, Rizenbul's been as quiet as ever," Al replied, skillfully turning the wagon around and heading back down the road. "Why? Did something happen in Central City?"

"Wrath showed his face in my office yesterday." Ed made a face, though his brother couldn't see it. "I was wondering if he had been poking around you as well."

"Not to my knowledge," Al said as he looked back curiously. "I wonder what he wants."

"There's no telling."

The two brothers continued to prattle, but I tuned out the conversation, not very interested in the affairs of a township this small. From what they had been saying, I guessed that this was the Colonel's home town, so I passed the time by studying the scenery and the few houses and people we passed, filing the look and feel of the place away for future reference.

As a result, I saw the barracks long before we pulled to a stop in front of them fifteen minutes later. They consisted of three long wooden buildings surrounded by a high fence, which also enclosed a fair-sized courtyard at the north end of the buildings. It was much the same as any other military outpost, except it was far smaller.

"Care to wait here for us, Al?" the Colonel asked as we jumped out of the back of the wagon. "The inspection won't take long."

"Of course not," Al replied. "Winry wanted us all to come by later anyways. She insisted on fixing lunch for you while you're here."

"That sounds great," Ed laughed as he turned to the barracks and tugged the front gate open. "Come on, Ryou. And pay attention; you'll be doing this on your own next time."

"Yes, sir!" I said as I followed him in, cheered up by the thought of getting something to eat for lunch besides standard train food.

* * *

There wasn't much more to a military inspection than what I remembered. All we really did was double-check inventory sheets, look over the buildings, and watch a military parade. "To tell the truth, I don't know what they're supposed to do," Ed whispered to me out of the corner of his mouth as a company marched past. "So just smile, say 'good job,' and mark an excellent on the sheet."

I laughed softly, glad that I wasn't the only one clueless as to what I was supposed to be looking for in the parade.

It was about half an hour before we walked back out and joined Al in the wagon. "Not too shabby, newbie," the Colonel said as Al prodded the mules back down the dirt road.

"Th-thank you, sir," I replied, shivering slightly. The coat I wore usually protected me quite well from the cold, but by now it was almost thoroughly soaked, since the drizzle had turned back into a driving rain. As a result, the few minutes it took to get to the small home where Al stopped the wagon next felt more like an hour or two.

We all jumped out of the wagon, Ed and me hurrying inside while Al unhitched the mule and led it to the nearby shed. "Good afternoon, Winry!" the Colonel called happily as we walked through the door and stopped just inside to shuck our wet coats and hang them on a nearby coat rack.

A pretty woman with long blond hair walked into the room through a doorway in the opposite wall, smiling brilliantly. "Ed! It's about time you came back to visit!"

"Sorry, but it's been hectic in Central City lately," Ed laughed, reaching back to scratch the back of his head.

"I don't doubt it." Winry ushered us forward. "Come on in, lunch is ready now."

"Winry, this is Major Ryou Bakura," Ed introduced as we walked into the kitchen and sat down at small table. "Ryou, this is my old friend, Winry. The best auto-mail mechanic in Amestris."

Winry grinned at me as she set two bowls of beef stew in front of us. "You bet," she said.

I laughed. "I don't know," I answered. "The Mutou brothers would probably give you a run for your money."

Winry smirked at me as she brought over two more bowls of stew, setting one before the empty chair and sitting down in front of the last bowl. "You're so sure of that?"

"Well, my legs have stayed in perfect condition for over a year now," I said as Al came in and took the empty seat.

Winry's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "You have auto-mail legs?" she gasped. Beside me, Ed nearly choked as his expression turned sour.

"Uh, yeah," I answered uncertainly, glancing at the Colonel.

"Ohh, can I take a look at them after lunch?" she asked, her eyes practically sparkling.

"No," Ed answered for me. "We don't have time for you to take apart his limbs; we have to be back on the train to the city soon. Sorry, but not this time."

The woman pouted, but she didn't press. "That's quite a bruise you have," she said instead. "What happened?"

I reached up to touch the swollen side of my face that the Colonel had slapped and glared at him. "Long story," I told her as he tried not to snicker.

The rest of the meal was spent in light-hearted conversation. It had stopped raining by the time we finished, though the air was still uncomfortably cold as Al drove us back to the station. The noon train was already sitting beside the platform as we pulled up and jumped out.

"Come back sooner this time, Nii-san," Al said as he climbed down and stood in front of us. "I'd like to see you more often."

"I'll try," Ed said, giving his younger brother a hug and a pat on the shoulder. "But you know how it is. So much excitement all the time in the cities, especially with the reconstruction of Ishbal and Lior. Maybe you should come see me sometime."

Al laughed and climbed back into the wagon's driver seat. "Maybe I should," he said. "Bye!" Then he turned the mules around and started back down the road.

"Think you can get on the train by yourself this time?" the Colonel asked as we made our way across the platform. "I'm not going to be there to drag you onto it next time."

I felt my face grow hot in embarrassment. "I can get on," I mumbled in response, and before I could think about what I was doing, I marched the rest of the way across the platform and boarded the train.

Ed followed me into the nearly-empty car, and once again we sat close to the middle. "See? Not so bad, is it?" he said.

"Not when I don't think about it first," I answered, turning to stare out the window as the train's whistle blew. The day had been short and easy, despite the bad weather, and I felt quite confident in my ability to carry out any future missions that the Colonel might throw at me.

My military career, and my new life, was off to a flying start.

* * *

Yes, another chapter done at last! Sorry about the delay, folks, but summertime means no internet access at home, and summer job means less time to write. Which makes for rare updates. But never fear, I'm not abandoning this story. And sorry if this chapter's boring; I wanted Ryou to have an easy first mission. Plus, I wanted him to get to know Ed a little better. Expect more from the next chapter for sure. Until then, please review! Oh, and I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or FullMetal Alchemist. 


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

That first mission with the Colonel was also the last for the rest of the year and almost half of the next. Winter closed in not long after the Colonel and I returned from Rizenbul, and snow blocked most of the roads and railroad tracks leading to and from the capitol city of Amestris. As a result, very few military missions were handed out, and I spent most of my time confined in the First Branch of the library, doing research on illusion alchemy and various ways it could be used in public service. When I wasn't taking a crash course in fighting from Ed, that is.

I had declined his offer to teach me how to fight at first. I had never been a fighter, preferring to stay away from typical schoolyard brawls and settle my arguments in a more peaceful manner.

"But Major," the Colonel had said. "Everyone who joins the military is required to learn basic hand-to-hand combat skills, as well as how to use a knife and a rifle."

"But I don't like to fight," I had protested.

It was then that Ed had given me a huge, mischievous grin that reminded me all too much of the look on Malik's face when he felt like getting into trouble. "You don't have a choice."

Surprisingly, it hadn't taken me long to establish a reputation as the top marksman in Central City. At least, it was surprising to everyone else. I had always been able to hit what I threw at, for as far back as I could remember. And shooting a rifle was no different. Bare-handed combat was another matter, though. According to Ed, I was good—not excellent, but definitely above average. I didn't feel that way every time he gave me another score or two of bruises, though.

I often wondered why he insisted on giving me military training; no one else mentioned it, or even seemed to think it mattered. So I asked him one cold January evening, after he had finished proving once again that he was by far the better martial artist.

He hadn't said anything at first, instead toweling sweat out of his hair and flexing his auto-mail arm and leg to make sure they were still in proper working order. When he answered at last, he didn't look at me. "You have to be prepared for anything, Ryou. There may come a time when you will have to fight, whether you want to or not."

I hadn't liked the way he said that, not at all. It implied that he knew something I didn't, and after the second encounter with Wrath in his office and his dodging of my question about human transmutation on the train, I was almost certain that he was keeping something from me. But I swallowed any protests and kept to myself. After all, he wasn't the only one hiding something.

Winter passed into spring, which began fading into summer. Over those seven months, my almost worshipful awe of Ed disappeared completely as I got to know him and trust him. For someone who had been in the military since he was twelve, he didn't care much about military procedure. He once told me that he only wore his uniform because the Fuhrer once threatened to fire him if he didn't. Which had me wondering for a while how a Colonel could be 'fired' instead of 'discharged' before I realized that it was an empty threat. Ed and Mustang were very good friends, though they'd both deny it if someone told them that to their faces.

It was a bright early June day when I received my second mission from the State Alchemist office. I was rather surprised when Brigadier General Hawkeye stopped by the house early that morning and said that I had orders waiting on me at the Colonel's office; I was beginning to think that I was never going to go on another mission again.

"Guess what?" Ed said, plopping his phone onto its receiver even as I walked through the door. "You get to go to Lior City." He looked mildly disgusted.

I sat down in a chair, frowning a little. "Why? What's going on in Lior?"

"Apparently some thief's being going around and being a nuisance." Ed picked up a sheaf of papers and tossed them down in front of me.

I picked the report up and scanned it with a thoughtful frown. "This guy's been raiding safes and military armored transports? How? He'd have to walk through walls."

"And since that's impossible, we just have to settle with believing that he may have inside help, which is why you're being sent in."

"To root out the mole." I set the report down again. "When I don't even know what this thief looks like, much less who he could be in contact with."

Ed shrugged. "Sorry, but that's the best we can do. I'd go myself, but I'm tied up here at the capitol with political crap. So Mustang suggested that I send you instead."

"The Fuhrer?" I said in confusion. "Why would he want _me_ to go?"

Ed shrugged again. "There's no telling what he thinks," he answered, face contorting in a good-natured scowl. "And he might know something that he hasn't passed on to me. He usually does. So all I can do is tell you good luck."

"And that's all?" I couldn't help but laugh a little. "No instructions on how to do my job?"

"Sorry." He shrugged a third time. "It should be easy. Just pick a good target and stake it out. The thief is sure to hit it some time. That's what I did one time in Aquroya. Worked pretty well."

I sighed as I stood up. "Well, this promises to be fun," I grumbled as I saluted.

Ed's laughter followed me out.

* * *

For a city that had been utterly demolished fifteen years ago, Lior sure was big. That was my first thought when I stepped off the train at the station and took a good look around. The city was possibly even larger than Central City, with construction still ongoing around the outskirts and on some of the larger buildings.

I frowned at the small city map Ed had given me before I had left the previous day. It marked the local police station, where I was supposed to report in as soon as I arrived. Thankfully, the rebuilt city's streets were based on the grid system, and it was easy to find both the police station and the train station on the map.

I marked the quickest route from one to the other in my mind and memorized it quickly as I stepped into the busy streets. It was simple enough, after all. Ten blocks up, a right turn, and another three blocks to police headquarters. I folded the map and put it away, not wanting to miss the sight offered by this new city.

Those sights were plentiful, with shop windows filled with tempting merchandise, cloth and pastries and jewelry, and open-air stalls with colorful awnings, their proprietors calling out to passersby in an effort to sell their wares, and fountains and newly planted trees and groups of children running and laughing around every corner.

Yet I couldn't help but feel uneasy. In my attentive observation of my surroundings, I noticed that few of the natives looked at me. They would see m e coming and duck their heads, avert their eyes, cringe away in fear. Those that did dare to look my way glared with ill-concealed malice and hostility on their faces.

_Do they still hate the military?_ I had to wonder. _It's been fifteen years since Lior was destroyed, and we've been helping them rebuild for seven years now. And still they carry a grudge against us?_

I wasn't wearing my uniform, but my State Alchemist watch hung from my vest pocket, bouncing against my chest as I walked. It was a clear enough sign that I was in the military, and I could think of no other reason why the people of Lior would fear and hate me upon sight.

And so I was very relieved when I spotted three men dressed in the military blue of Amestris making their way through the crowd towards me, so relieved that I didn't even notice that the natives weren't favoring the newcomers with the same looks they gave me.

I stopped as they came up to me and raised my hand in a salute. They answered by raising their rifles to their shoulders and pointing them at me.

"Wh-what?" I stepped back in shock, hand falling to my side. "What's the meaning of this?" Looking around, I could now see that the civilians had become braver, some looking relieved and others casting angry or superior looks at me.

"You're coming with us, thief," one of the military men said.

"Why should I—" I glanced at the insignia on his collar "—Lieutenant? Can't you see who I am?" I tapped the silver watch for emphasis. "I outrank you!"

The others sneered. "State Alchemist, my ass!" the lieutenant snapped. "You dare show your face in public, wearing that thing? I oughta kill you right here!" He cocked his rifle.

I gulped as sweat beaded on my forehead. This first meeting with the local authorities was quickly degenerating from bad to worse. "Y-you can't do that; you'll be court-martialed," I said, hoping to talk some sense into the man before he blew my head off. "Especially when Colonel Elric finds out."

"The Head of the State Alchemy Department won't care about a thief like you." He had his finger on the trigger.

"I'm not a thief!" I burst out in desperation and frustration. "My name is Major Ryou Bakura, and I've been sent here from Central City to help _catch_ a thief! By order of the Fuhrer himself; just call the capitol and see!"

A long minute stretched while everything stood motionless. Even the wind halted in anticipation of the lieutenant's response. Then that minute came to an end, and he snorted, pushing the rifle's safety back into place, though he kept it pointed at me. "Come on, then," he said. "I don't believe a word you say, but you're too insignificant to risk a court martial for. But first, hand over that watch."

"No," I answered crossly. All three officers cocked their guns, and I sighed, unclipping the watch's chain and tossing it at the guy to my right, and handing him my traveling pack as well after he glared at me and made a motion towards it. Staring down gun barrels has a way of making one change one's mind, after all.

There wasn't much I could do besides follow the lieutenant to the police station, so I settled for fuming at Ed the whole way there. Blaming the situation on him made me feel a little better. Once we reached the building, a large structure built of solid stone, they wasted no time in marching me to a back room lined with jail cells and stuffing me in one. The lieutenant and the officer with my watch and pack left, but the third officer, a young woman stayed behind.

"Geez, a guard, too?" I complained. "What are the chances of someone escaping from a jail like this?" For I could see with just a simple look around that the jail was well-made, the floor, ceiling and walls made of stones so well cut and fitted that I doubted I could slip a knife blade into the cracks. The bars that divided the cells and blocked the window were steel, well-forged and well set. There was no chance of prying them out of their slots.

"They say you can walk through walls," the woman officer answered grimly. "We're not taking chances."

I sighed and sat down on the edge of the single bunk in my prison. "This isn't some kind of practical joke Ed decided to spring on me, is it?" I asked. "Because if it is, it's not a very good one."

This time the woman chose to glare at me rather than answer, and I decided that any further attempts at conversation would be pointless. So I twisted around to lie back on the bunk and stare at the ceiling instead. If that lieutenant had any sense in him, he would be calling the capitol right now and confirming my story. And if he didn't…well, I'd just have to break out. Stone walls and steel bars were no match for an alchemist.

Thankfully, I didn't have to contemplate ways to escape without injuring my guard for more than ten minutes; not even that much time had passed before the lieutenant burst back in and fumbled with the keys in his rush to unlock my cell.

"I'm terribly sorry, Major, sir," he said with a deep bow as the door swung open. "This was all a big misunderstanding. Your personal effects will be returned to you immediately."

"Big misunderstanding?" I echoed as I stood up and walked out. "That's an understatement. Why in the world would you think I'm a thief, anyways?"

The officer backed away and then followed me as I walked out. "The thief was sighted just the other night during one of his burglaries," he answered. "Didn't you get the report?"

"Sighted?" I frowned as I stopped in the nearby evidence room to collect my watch and traveling pack. "No, that wasn't in the report I was given. It must not have reached the Fuhrer's office." _Or else that was the part of the report that Fuhrer Mustang withheld…_

"I see, sir," the lieutenant said, bowing and taking the lead once again. "Well, ah, I'll just show you to the head of investigation's office. He'll be able to explain everything to you."

"Lead on," I said, already slightly annoyed by his nervousness. He turned and set off at a fast pace, and I couldn't help but be reminded of the way I used to act around Colonel Elric.

"_Oy,"_ he would say all the time. _"What are you so afraid of? I'm not going to bite, no matter how much I bark."_

_Was I really that irritating?_ I asked myself, and then I made a mental note to myself to apologize to Ed the next time I saw him.

The head of investigation's office was just off the main hall, and fairly close to the front lobby. The lieutenant stopped outside and bowed again, gesturing at the closed door. "He's already expecting you."

"Thank you," I told him, pushing the door open.

The inside of the office was a mess of papers, most of them stacked on various tables and cabinets as well as the desk. On one wall was a bulletin board on which was tacked several newspaper clippings, and on the opposite wall was a large map of Lior with several red pins stuck in it at various locations. Behind the desk sat a man in a blue uniform whom I guessed to be the Head of Investigation. He looked up at me from under a long brown cowlick that made me wish I had a pair of scissors handy to cut it off.

He started in surprise and jumped up as I stopped in front of the desk. "You _do_ look like him!" he cried.

"Eh?" I said, confused and taken aback.

After frowning at me for another couple of seconds, he shook his head and snapped out of it. "Major Ryou Bakura?" he asked with a salute.

"Yes?" I said, saluting in return.

"I'm Lieutenant Colonel Honda Hiroto, Head Investigator of the city of Lior. Forgive my initial reaction, but your resemblance to our thief really is quite remarkable."

"I…look like your thief?" A feeling of unease began to stir in the pit of my stomach.

He nodded, returning to his seat and gesturing at a chair that was free of papers. "You fit our description of him perfectly," he said as I sat down. "It's little wonder that Lieutenant Eastman mistook you for him, and I apologize for the incident."

I waved the apology away. "Don't worry about it; it's sorted out now. Though I wonder why he didn't believe me after seeing my watch."

"A State Alchemist was murdered a couple of nights ago," Hiroto answered. "It was near to the scene of the latest burglary, so we believe it was the thief who did it. Plus, his watch was taken from his body." He frowned at me again. "If I may ask, why did the Colonel send you, the Illusory Alchemist, to help us with this problem? Illusions won't help us catch a thief."

"You'd be surprised what illusions can help with," I countered. "And it's not the only kind of alchemy I can do. Besides, the Colonel sent me at the Fuhrer's suggestion. Why Mustang wanted me here is a mystery to me."

"I see. Well, at any rate, here you are, so I believe it's time to get to work." Hiroto stood up and walked over to the map. "So far all we've been able to do is try to predict where he'll hit next, but so far that's been nearly impossible. He seems to choose his targets at random, and not all of them have anything of value."

"Things are rarely done at random," I said, joining him at the map. "And I don't believe this is, either…" I let my voice trail off as I stared at the city, the unease in my stomach growing into a small knot of dread. "Do you have a pencil?" I asked.

"Of course." The Lieutenant Colonel hurried over to his desk and shoved aside a couple of reports, uncovering a pencil and coming back to hand it to me.

After a few more seconds of staring, I reached up to draw a design on the map, connecting all the little red flags as I worked. And the knot of dread inside me grew into a ball.

"What it is?" Hiroto asked, watching as I extending the design in a few places, its edges hitting places where there were no flags.

"It's a transmutation circle," I answered. "This was designed to be a message to someone. An alchemist." I decided not to add that I had never seen a design like this before. At least, I didn't remember seeing it, or even hearing of it. Most circles only had six points; this one had seven. Yet, the connections, the curves, the whole design just popped into my head as I had studied the map.

"A message, eh? Any idea what kind of message?"

I shook my head. "This is a circle I've never used before, so I couldn't tell you what it means or who it's intended for. But I can give you a good idea where the next burglaries could be." I pointed at three different buildings. "These places would complete the design."

"Lieutenant Colonel!"

We both turned in surprise as the office door burst open and Lieutenant Eastman rushed in, nearly tumbling over the doorstep. He caught the edge of a nearby cabinet to steady himself and looked up, anger and frustration written all over his face. "He's struck again! The military storage warehouse at the corner of North Street and Third Avenue!"

"In the middle of the _day_?" I said in disbelief.

"You're sure it was him?" Hiroto asked, his steady voice visibly calming Eastman down.

The Lieutenant's eyes flicked to me, and then back to the Head Investigator. "There were several witnesses, sir. All of them report the same description as last time."

"I see." Hiroto picked up a red flag from a nearby jar full of them and stabbed it onto the location that had just been robbed, a location that I had pointed out as a possible hit point just a few seconds ago. "Looks like you were right," he said. "Now there's only two places left, and I doubt even this thief is daring enough to hit one of them."

"Why?" I asked.

"The locals wouldn't stand for it," he answered. "It's the temple of their Sun God, Leto."

* * *

We went to inspect the crime scene soon afterward. It was nothing special, just a storage warehouse that held mostly food packs. But this week there had also been a few crates of standard issue weapons, and it one of these crates that had been busted open and relieved of its contents.

Lieutenant Colonel Hiroto began drilling the two guards on duty as soon as we got there. Neither of them had seen him get in, though it was clear enough how he got out: a broken window twenty feet above the ground.

"The building was locked tight," the guard said for the tenth time as I walked inside, bored with the cross-examination Hiroto was giving him. "I don't know how he could have gotten in, especially without us seeing him. The locks on the doors showed no signs of being tampered with, and the windows are too high, even for someone with automail legs."

_It's as if he can walk through walls,_ my mind finished, though I couldn't hear him any more. That's what everyone in Lior was saying. And the sound of the words, combined with their description of the thief, sent a series of chills running up my spine every time I thought about it. For I remembered a day, not even a year ago, when Malik had said those same words.

I tried to convince myself that it meant nothing, that it was merely a coincidence. After all, people didn't walk through walls. And Akira was most certainly, irreversibly dead. I couldn't change that, and neither could anyone else. And even if he was somehow alive, he certainly wasn't a thief!

Those hopeful thoughts were shattered only an instant later.

The crate that had been broken open stood at the back of the warehouse, and as I scanned the floor, looking for footprints, a shred of cloth, any kind of clue, a silver flash from a nearby stack of boxes caught my eye. I walked over to find a silver State Alchemist watch resting on top of a box.

_That's right,_ I remembered dimly as I lifted it by its chain. _A State Alchemist was killed last time. This must have been his._ Then I noticed something sticking out of the lid, and I brought my other hand up to cradle it as I flipped it open.

The clock face within was broken, the glass shattered and the hands bent. Some of the internal workings poked through a rip in the face. I winced at the sight, knowing that it was no accident. Someone had purposely broken, probably with a knife or dagger. A piece of paper had fallen to the ground as I had opened it, and I bent down now to pick it up with trembling fingers.

Lieutenant Colonel Hiroto came up behind me as I straightened and unfolded the paper, but I hardly heard his inquiry of what I had found. The paper was an old newspaper clipping about the Serra's Point train accident, a list of the dead to be exact. And there at the top, right under the photo of the wreck, was Akira's name, circled in red ink.

Again came Hiroto's question, but I couldn't hear it past the buzzing in my ears. Carefully, I folded the clipping back and set it down on the box beside the watch before slumping down on the floor, leaning back against the crates and burying my face in my hands.

The robbery pattern may have been a message to someone else, but there was no mistaking this. Someone knew I was here, investigating this. Someone who also knew about my past, and very likely what I had done, though I had tried so hard to cover it up and leave it behind. This was a message aimed directly at me.

And for the first time since the day of the accident, I dared to truly believe that Akira may be alive.

* * *

I don't own FullMetal Alchemist or Yu-Gi-Oh. Please review, minna-san.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I stayed outside near the police vehicles for the rest of the investigation, letting the locals do the rest of the work. I had found out too much already; my heart felt like it was going to burst open from all the emotions swirling within me.

Akira was alive. It was completely impossible, but somehow it was true. There was no other explanation. No one in Lior knew my past, knew I had once had a brother, or even that I was from Serra's Point, the town notorious for its awful train accident. Yet here was a newspaper clipping about that same accident, a list of the dead with my brother's name clearly marked. A thief who looked like me…the man watching me from across the street after the State Alchemist Exam…the thing in the middle of the transmutation circle as the smoke cleared, struggling just to breathe…

Tears of frustration welled in my eyes, and I fought them back down before anyone could notice. It wouldn't do to break down here, where everyone was looking up to me and expecting me to do my job. But the emotions fueling those tears were threatening to boil over, so I leaned back against Honda Hiroto's automobile for support and bowed my head, letting my hair fall forward to conceal my face.

This was all so _impossible_. It just _couldn't be_. Akira was _dead_; I watched him die, crushed under the weight of the passenger car we had been riding in. So there was no way he could have been in Central City that day, when Malik and I chased him through the city's alleys. There was no way he could be here now, stealing and killing and _taunting_ me. Unless…

Unless I had succeeded, that night that I lost my left leg. Unless that monster, that pitiful thing that had struggled for breath, choking and gasping horribly, really was the reincarnation of my twin. But I couldn't bring myself to believe that. That creature, my creation, wasn't human. I doubted it had even survived more than ten minutes. If Akira truly walked this earth again, someone else must have brought him back. Someone else must have succeeded where I failed. Unless…

Unless this was all a cruel joke that someone had decided to play on me, and this thief that tormented me wasn't Akira at all.

I shook the thoughts out of my head as best I could when I saw Lieutenant Colonel Hiroto come out of the warehouse, calling to the rest that the investigation of the crime scene was over for the day. I could spend all day going through questions about this strange connection between myself and the thief and get absolutely nowhere. It was time I turned my attention back to the matters at hand.

"Akira Bakura."

I jumped, startled at Hiroto's mention of the name. We were sitting in his office, poring over what little we had learned earlier that day at the warehouse. Or rather, he was poring over the information and evidence, and I was letting my mind wander back to memories and past events that I thought I had sealed away forever.

"Bakura…a relative of yours, Major?" the Lieutenant Colonel asked. If he noticed that I hadn't been paying attention before, he didn't show any sign of it.

"He was," I admitted, settling my gaze on the desk rather than on Hiroto. "Like the article there says, he died in the Serra's Point train accident."

"So we can be safe assuming that this was a message of sorts, directed at you."

"We can." I shrugged my shoulders helplessly as I looked back up. "I just wish I could make sense of it."

The Lieutenant Colonel frowned as he set the piece of newspaper down. "Do you think it's possible…" He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "…That this thief could also be related to you?"

"It could be, though I don't know who. I don't have very much family." I let my gaze drop back to the desk and hoped he wouldn't catch on to the lie. After all, he wouldn't believe me even if I told him all that had happened and all I had been thinking.

"In any case, this is disturbing," Hiroto continued. "This thief has been bothering us for the better part of a year, and now he has decided to make things personal with a military officer. Though if what you said about the pattern is true, it was personal from the beginning and we just didn't know it." He frowned suddenly, as if an idea had occurred to him. "But now, with you here, maybe he'll make a mistake. And then we'll have him!"

"Maybe," I echoed. "Are we finished? I'd like to go to my hotel and get some rest."

"There's just one more thing." The Lieutenant Colonel sat back in his seat and glanced at the map on his office wall. "We're planning to stake out the next target starting tomorrow night. If your theory on the pattern holds up, the thief will hit the place sooner or later. You'll be there, right?"

"Of course." I stood up and shouldered my pack. "If you don't mind, would you tell me the way to my hotel? I haven't exactly had the chance to find it myself yet."

"It's across the street," Hiroto answered. "See you tomorrow."

* * *

The first few days of the stakeout were uneventful, boring even. No sign of the thief was seen, and after the third day the guards, myself began to grow lax, letting down our guard. The others believed that my theory was wrong, that the man who had eluded them so many times wouldn't strike that small apartment building after all. And I wanted to believe it, too. I didn't want to think that I had any kind of connection with him, that he had established this pattern in an effort to draw me down here, that he had stolen and murdered because of me.

But in the time that we watched the apartments, the thief didn't hit anywhere else in the city. I was hoping he would; it would disprove my pattern theory and hopefully my awful suspicions with it. And so, even though the other officers and policemen grew bored with the stakeout, and spent most of their time at card games, I stayed vigilant, both anticipating and fearing the moment that I would face the thief.

I wanted to meet him; I wanted to speak with him. I wanted him to prove every theory I had wrong. I wanted to know that he was a total stranger, and not my brother returned from the grave. But at the same time I was terrified that I wasn't wrong. That it was Akira. And that he hated me for what I had done.

I took the late afternoon and evening shifts at the building. The heat of the day had passed by the time I went on duty, but there were still people around, lessening the chance of a strike. And as afternoon shifted into evening, bringing twilight with it, the setting sun painted gorgeous colors across the western sky beyond the apartments. Then that would fade into night, with the stars coming out to shine their soft, soothing light on the city.

It was just such a night, the fourth night, that my worst fears were realized.

The sun had set an hour ago, and the dry desert air had cooled off considerably. I had developed a habit of walking through the building every hour, checking all the rooms to make sure everything was well. By this time I had the whole layout memorized, and I didn't need light, especially the meager light of a lamp. Electricity had yet to reach Lior City. I could easily create light using alchemy, though; I had set up a signal for the guards in the street below. If a light appeared in any room of the building, it meant that something was wrong.

I was on the third and last floor, stepping through the halls silently and checking the tiny living areas one by one. All the residents had been relocated earlier that week in an attempt to keep the casualty count down, so I didn't have to worry about disturbing anyone.

I backed out of one apartment and locked its door before moving on to the next, carefully keeping away from the floorboards that creaked. After all, it wouldn't do for the thief to hear me coming, if he was here. Checking the lock of the next door as best I could in the darkness of the hall, I decided it hadn't been tampered with and slid the key into it. As I twisted the knob and eased the door open, a sound from within made me freeze.

I kept the door open just a crack and listened to the continuing sounds within. A drawer being opened and rummaged through. The clink of something being thrown on top of something else. Footsteps. Breathing.

Someone was inside a room that should have been deserted, that had been locked. I bit down hard on my lip, trying to gather what little courage hadn't fled the sounds. Then I pushed the door open all the way, sending a silent thank you to the heavens above when it didn't squeak, and clapped my hands together, beginning the transmutation that would bring light to the room. The thief, crouching down and inspecting the contents of a trunk in the far corner, straightened and whirled to face me as light flooded the room.

And I found myself face to face with a nightmare.

He was Akira, and he wasn't. The height, the build, the features, even the clothes he wore were the echo of my lost brother. But his snow white hair wasn't cropped short; rather, it was as long as mine and perhaps longer, wild and unkempt. His skin was paler, almost translucent, and his eyes, instead of the gentle chocolate brown that I remembered, were blood-red, with slits for pupils, like an animal's eyes.

The seconds seemed to stretch into eternity as we stared at each other, frozen. "Who?" I choked out, somehow finding my voice as I stepped back, bringing down my hands and ending the light-producing transmutation. "What…?"

A laugh reached my ears from the darkness within the room, a laugh from a voice slightly more high-pitched than mine, a laugh that belonged to Akira, a laugh that held a psychotic edge that scared me far more than his appearance ever could. The shadowed form jumped at me suddenly, my only clue to the danger coming from the sudden disappearance of the dim moonlight streaming through the window as his body blocked it.

Purely on instinct, I reached into one of my sleeves, pulled out a small throwing dagger, and launched it at the thief. A sickening crunch sounded as it struck home, cracking through bone, and the shadow fell to the floor.

I reached for another throwing dagger, clutching it tightly in an effort to still the trembling in my hand as I stared at the unmoving figure on the floor. After a couple more seconds, when I could hear more soldiers making their way up the stairs, I dared to stick the dagger between my teeth and transmute light into the room again.

The thief, the being who might have been my brother, lay sprawled on the floor, my dagger stuck firmly between his wide-open and unseeing eyes. Blood trickled away from the grisly wound, trailing into his eye cavities and down his forehead, staining his bangs red.

It was over, then. All those questions that had been whirling through my mind these last few days would never be answered. I sighed, stepping out of the way while a few soldiers made their way into the room, exclaiming over the body and assuring me that they'd deal with things from here on. Congratulating me on the kill. I felt sick at their words.

Yet I decided that it was better this way as I made my way down the stairs to where Lieutenant Colonel Hiroto was just pulling up on the street below. Maybe I'd never get the answers I had so desperately wanted and feared, but maybe it was better that I didn't know.

"My report says you killed the thief," Hiroto said as he climbed out of his automobile and spotted me. "Is that true?"

"Lucky shot," I mumbled in reply, looking at the ground. That was the first time I had ever killed someone…I didn't like the feeling.

"Good, good," the Lieutenant Colonel replied absent-mindedly. "Finally, everyone he's hurt had gotten justice. You did well, Major. I suppose it's time to start writing the final re—" He stopped and whirled, as we all did, to stare at the third story apartment window.

A scream had erupted from the room, a scream that ended as abruptly as it had begun, too abruptly. Then the window shattered as a form flew through it, a white-haired form that landed on his feet barely ten meters away, completely unaffected by what should have been a lethal fall. My heart still in my chest as the thief looked up, right at me, Akira's face wearing an insane smile. The blood was still there, dried in a splatter pattern on his forehead, but the skin beneath was smooth, not even a scar visible.

Before anyone could react, he flicked something at me, something that thudded into the ground between my feet, and took off, disappearing into the night as if he had never been here. I looked to the ground to find my blood-stained dagger, the same one I had buried in his head mere moments before.

It was too much for my overwhelmed mind to comprehend, and my knees buckled, the ground rushing up to greet me though I never felt the impact.

* * *

When next I opened my eyes, it was to the view of a white ceiling, one that reminded me of the hospital I had stayed in right after the train wreck. I lay still for several seconds, staring at that ceiling and trying to figure out where I was and how I got there.

Then memory slammed into me like a ton of bricks.

I sat up straight, staring wildly around the room as if the thief—Akira—was going to jump out at me from behind something. But all I could see were the usual hospital room furnishings: a small table, a chair, and a couch, as well as the bed I had been lying in. No one else was inside, and the door was closed.

Running a shaky hand over my face, I stood and started for the lone window. This was a ground floor room, and the view outside was partially obscured by bushes. Beyond them was a busy road, and beyond that was a park, where I could see people strolling among the shade trees as if nothing in the world were wrong.

I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against the cool glass as I tried to make sense of what had happened the previous night. Yet my mind seemed to shut down every time I approached the subject, and all I could bring myself to feel was mild disgust and annoyance at the fact that I had fainted.

After ten minutes of staring dully out at the park, I gave up and picked up my clothes, which were folded neatly on the table nearby. I shucked the hospital gown and put on the real clothes, and then I opened the door and stuck my head out.

An empty hall greeted my gaze, more closed doors like mine lining both sides of it. At one end the hall opened into a room that I assumed to be the lobby. I could see one edge of the main desk. Two young women dressed as nurses sat behind the desk, one working diligently at a typewriter and the other arguing with someone I couldn't see. But I recognized the voice as the Head of Investigation's, and I frowned, starting down the hall so I could hear what they were talking about.

"I'm sorry, sir," the nurse was saying. "But all medical records are confidential. I can't release them to anyone who isn't immediate family."

"But I'm his superior officer," Hiroto argued back. "And all medical records have to be forwarded to the military. Now tell me what's wrong with him!"

"Technically, Colonel Elric is still my superior officer," I informed them, startling them both. "And nothing's wrong with me; I just…fainted."

The Lieutenant Colonel didn't look happy at my statement, but he didn't bother to comment. After all, it was the truth; all State Alchemists reported directly to Ed. "Well the, if you're ready, let's go," he said instead. "It was a crazy night, and now we have to get started on the report."

Irritation filled me at his words, especially the implication that we would work on that report together. I knew exactly what he was trying to do—find out more about me without asking me directly. He wasn't the first; a couple of the State Alchemists in Central City had tried to the same. It was getting old.

"What about the doctor's orders?" I asked, turning to the nurse. "I can't leave until he lets me, correct?"

The nurse shrugged. "He's busy with another patient right now," she answered. "But he did leave a memo saying that you were just fine and could leave when you woke up. Apparently you just—"

"Fainted," I finished for her. "Don't remind me." I stepped back and bowed to her before stepping around the desk and heading for the main entrance.

Hiroto hurried to catch up with me as I pushed through the doors and into the sunshine beyond. "You're going to just leave your personal effects?" he asked.

"Unless you took the time to go to my hotel room and get something else, this is all I have here," I answered shortly, frowning as I stopped and looked both ways down the unfamiliar street.

"Ah, of course," the Lt. Colonel said as he turned to the right and took the lead. "Start thinking about how to write that report. We're going to have a hard time getting the big brass in Central City to believe it."

"I'm not writing any report," I replied, and then nearly plowed into him when he stopped abruptly in front of me.

"Wh-why?" he demanded, turning to stare at me.

_Because your efforts to pry into my past behind my back are not going to work,_ I thought, and said, "Colonel Elric sent me down here to capture a thief, and it would be a waste of time to write a report on how he escaped when we could be making preparations to catch him." I walked past him, recognizing now where we were and how to get to the hotel.

"But all the places in the pattern have been hit," Hiroto protested, once again rushing to keep up with me. "Robbing anywhere else would break the pattern, so he'll probably stop, or move on to another city. At any rate, the case is closed here."

"There's still one more location," I reminded him. "The seventh point and top of the circle."

"The Temple of Leto," he said with a scowl. "I already told you, he wouldn't risk it. No one would."

"We're talking about a man who hasn't hesitated to steal from the military and murder innocent people as well as State Alchemists. I don't think he will care about breaking into a temple." I turned down the road to the hotel and police station, mentally shaking my head at the Head of Investigation's lack of common sense. "You can believe me or not, but I'm staking the temple every night starting tonight."

"Suit yourself," Hiroto replied, turning to cross the street and go to the police station. "I'll be starting on that report. Come help me when you feel you've wasted enough time."

I ignored his last statement as I entered the hotel and headed up the stairs to my room. It wouldn't be a waste of time; I knew that too well. The thief would strike the temple, possibly tonight. And I had to be there to see him. There was so much I didn't know, so much he could explain.

I didn't even know what I was going to ask him when I saw him again. Or even where to begin. My brain still went blank every time I began to explore the possibilities; it was too overwhelming. A part of me wanted to forget everything that was happening, forget that twisted version of my brother, my dearest friend and companion growing up. Forget that I had ever tried to resurrect him. Forget that he had died. Forget that he had ever existed in the first place.

I fought against that part of my mind, against the clouds it threatened to throw over my memories, the good as well as the bad. There was no denying or erasing the past, and as hard as I had tried to bury it, I had to face it now. Though I dreaded the upcoming encounter, feared it with every fiber of my being, I had to face _him_. I had to know the truth.

And I had to find out what he wanted from me.

So I busied myself with small tasks, marking the route to the temple on my map and then memorizing it, and sharpening my small daggers. I preferred them over firearms; merely holding a gun made me feel uneasy. After making sure everything was in order, I sat on the bed and picked up a book.

I quickly lost myself in its pages, but when the light began to fade from my room hours later, I put it down easily, my nervousness returning to me tenfold. The sun hadn't quite set yet when I walked out of the hotel, for which I was glad. I didn't want to walk all the way to the temple in the darkness. On the way, I stopped to buy a roast sandwich for dinner and ate it as I continued on. Before long, I found myself in front of the temple, the largest and grandest structure in the city, and without giving myself time to think about it, I started up the steps and pushed through the main doors.

The inside was cool and dark, with only a few candles glowing on the altar at the front of the sanctuary. The large room was empty, its caretakers having already retired for the evening. I walked down the rows of pews and sat in the middle of the first one, staring up at the statue of the being these people worshipped as the avatar of the sun.

The seconds stretched ever so slowly into minutes as I waited, keeping my mind as blank as I could lest I think about what I was doing and run back to the hotel in terror. But it was hard, especially as time slowed to a crawl. No matter how long I was there, the candles never seemed to burn lower, and no one else came to pray, or meditate, or do whatever the faithful of Lior do in the house of their god.

It seemed like hours had gone by when at last I heard footsteps behind me, walking up the left at an easy, ambling pace. Yet I hadn't heard the door at the back open, and I knew I should have; its hinges had squeaked awfully when I had pushed it open. I knew then that it could only be one person.

He was there, right behind me, and all I had to do to confront him was turn around.

* * *

Oh, lookit. The plot finally heats up. And I bet a lot of people are confused by now. All shall be explained, though; keep a lookout for the next chapter! I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or FullMetal Alchemist. 


	11. Chapter 10

I must put another spoiler warning up for this chapter. I'm not sure how far FMA has gotten on Cartoon Network, but I'm sure there are more than a few spoilers in this chapter. So, there's your fair warning. Thanks for all the reviews I've been getting; I love every one of them. Keep them coming. I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or FullMetal Alchemist.

Chapter 10

"Who…who are you?" I asked after several seconds of unbearable silence. My voice echoed hollowly through the room, and I forced myself to suppress a shudder.

He laughed at me, a low chuckle amplified in the stillness and gloom to a horrible cackle. He knew I feared him, and he enjoyed that fear, it seemed. "Who am I?" he mocked. "Don't you already know?"

I closed my eyes and swallowed, trying to ignore the voice in my head that told me to get up and run, run, run as far and fast as I could possibly go. Get away from here. Get away from _him_. Return to Central City, return to Serra's Point, go beyond it into the wild, cold country to the north where _he_ would never find me.

Instead I stayed in my seat and answered his question. "No. I don't."

A hiss rebounded off the walls, a hiss not unlike that of an angry snake. He had been expecting a different answer. "Am I not Akira?" he asked, his cold voice drawing closer. "Am I not your dear brother?"

This time there was no way I could suppress the shudder that passed through me. "No, you're not," I answered, holding on to that belief with all the strength I possessed. "You're not my brother. Akira…Akira would never do what you have done! He would never steal, or kill."

"So he wouldn't." He was standing behind me, and I sat frozen with terror. "So tell me." His voice was only inches from my ear; I could feel his breath on my neck. "Who am I?"

"You…" My throat closed down. I wanted to scream _I don't know!_ but I couldn't speak; my voice refused to work.

Time stretched between us as he waited on words that wouldn't come. After an eternity of silence, what seemed like hours though it couldn't have been more than a couple of minutes, he got tired of waiting on me and snorted, moving past me to the altar. I ducked my head and stared at my lap.

"You know who I am," he said, startling me into looking up at him. He was facing the altar, his back turned to me and candlelight through golden tints into his unruly hair. He chuckled again as he continued. "You do. You just don't want to admit it to yourself." He turned around to meet my eyes, and I shuddered at the insane grin he wore. "Have you ever heard of the Homunculi?"

"C-created humans?" I said, dropping my gaze to the floor. I couldn't stand to look at him. "But…they're just legends. They're not real."

"Of course they're real!" His almost playful tone suddenly became furious, and I cringed back as the urge to flee grew stronger. But the anger vanished as suddenly as it had come, and his playful, secretive tone returned. "Because I _am_ a Homunculus, you see." Once again his laughter echoed through the room as he came closer, walking right up to me and grabbing my shoulders so that I was forced to look him in the face. "And do you know how a Homunculus is born, Ryou? No, of course you don't. You don't allow yourself to know."

He let me go then and stepped back, whirling in a circle as if dancing. "We are born through human transmutation. We are made by the hand of alchemists like you. Alchemists that wanted, that _tried_, to resurrect someone. And inevitably failed."

"No." I didn't mean to speak, and the word was barely audible, but this was too much. I didn't want to hear it. I didn't want to know the truth. _Please…please stop._ I stood up and edged to the side, making for the aisle while watching him, terrified and transfixed. "That's not true."

"Of course it's true!" Again came the furious tone, and with it a terrible, murderous expression. I was backing down the aisle now, and he followed me, driving me back faster and faster. "You wanted to who I am? I am a Homunculus! I am a created thing, given a body and a psyche but no soul. I am Greed. Don't you get it yet, Ryou? I am your sin!"

My back thudded against the large door at the back, and he planted his hands on either side of me, trapping me there. "You _unforgivable_ sin. I'll never forgive you, Ryou."

_You're right…unforgivable…I am unforgivable…_

"I could kill you now. I _should_ kill you now."

_That's right…kill me…end it all…_

"But I can't." His face blurred, and I fought desperately to stay conscious. "See, there's something you have to do, Ryou. You owe it to me."

_Something…to do…_ "Wh-what do you want from me?" _Please…anything…to get away…_

"The Philosopher's Stone. I want you to make it." He backed up at last, but I stayed pressed against the wall, using it for much-needed support. "It's not a legend either, you know. It's been made before, and it can be made again. By you."

"Th-the…Philosopher's Stone?" I sank to the floor as my knees gave out. "But why? What do you want?"

"Want?" He spun in another circle, arms outstretched. "I am Greed. It's not just my name, it's everything I am. I want everything. I want the whole world and all that it holds. I want the sun and the moon and even the far away stars. But most of all…" He turned back to face me and stopped, his face suddenly becoming very serious. "I want to become human."

"H-human?"

"Yes. I want a soul, Ryou. That's what I want. That's what the Philosopher's Stone—and you—can give me." He crouched down, putting his face on level with mine. "I know you can make it, Ryou. You made me. All I have to do is show you the way." He leaned closer, so close I could feel his breath on my face. "And if you do, I'll let you live. Equivalent trade, right?"

It was all I could do to keep from fainting. Only the surreality of everything that had happened since I had arrived in Lior kept me awake. _This is a dream. It's not real. It can't be._

"You will, right?" he asked, his face growing dark as he continued to speak. "You'll make the Philosopher's Stone. Or I'll kill you here and now. It's all that _you_ deserve." He stared hard at me as he finally finished, obviously expecting an answer.

I couldn't speak at all; my voice had failed once again. The increasingly heated glare he was giving me didn't help, either. I almost wanted him to kill me; it would be the end of this horror I had brought upon myself. And upon _him_. I couldn't begin to imagine the torment he suffered just by being alive, and I didn't want to. And it was because of _me_. _I_ had created him. I had played the part of the fool, and now we were both paying for it.

Whatever he would have chosen to do next, kill me or hit me or hug me, I never found out. Even as the look on his face grew more enraged at my silence, the door behind me was pulled open, and I fell backwards against someone's legs. I looked up, daring to hope that perhaps Lieutenant Colonel Hiroto had found out that I was gone and had come looking for me. My hopes were dashed, though, for instead I found myself staring into the face of the man called Wrath.

He kicked me away cruelly, and I fell forward onto Greed, crying out at the sudden sharp pain in my kidney. "Playing with worms, Greed?" the older man said, no trace of amusement in his tone.

"And what does it matter to you?" Greed snarled back, shoving me to the floor as he stood up. "We have someone here who possesses the capability to make the Philosopher's Stone, to make us _human_, and you would throw it all away in name of petty revenge!"

"He is not the only alchemist that has enough talent for that feat," Wrath answered in the same cold tone. "And personally, I would much rather see the pain on Elric's face when I present him with the dead body of his favorite underling than waste time with dim hopes."

The mention of Ed's name was like a wave of ice cold water hitting me in the face. Suddenly the cloud of confusion and disbelief swept out of my mind, and I could think clearly. _The pattern of the burglaries…it was meant to draw the Colonel himself here, not me! I've walked into his trap. I must get back; I must warn him!_

Ignoring the blossoming argument above me, I stayed down on the floor and racked my brain in an effort to find a way out of the mess I was in. I still had my knives, but if I made any kind of move for them, the Homunculi were bound to notice and stop me, maybe kill me in the process. And I was lying between them, so the chances of getting to my feet and out the door were next to none. I could create some kind of illusion—the air was still enough—but nothing I could think of would help my situation.

But alchemy was really my only option, and I seized on the idea. If the air couldn't help me, maybe the floor would. Both captors ceased their argument and looked down at the sound of my hands clapping together, but they were too late to stop the transmutation. As I placed my hands on the floor, the stone warped and bent, stretching up in two thick, lightning-quick tendrils to wrap around Wrath and Greed, pinning them where they stood. Both shouted in anger, but I wasn't listening to them. As soon as the transmutation activated, I jumped to my feet and hurtled out the door.

But my freedom didn't last long. Almost as soon as I had crossed the threshold, rejoicing to be out of the temple at last, something grabbed my collar, mercilessly yanking me back into the sanctuary, into the nightmare. That something pulled me around, and I barely caught a glimpse of Greed's face before his fist slammed into my eye. Stars exploded in my head, and I reeled back, though the hand gripping my collar didn't allow me to go far. It pulled me forward again, and I opened my uninjured eye to look into Greed's murderous face again.

"Fool! You can't get away that easily," he sneered.

"H-h-how…" I started, too shaken to finish the question.

He stepped to the side, and I could see Wrath, still caught in the transmuted floor, and beside him the spiral of stone that had held Greed, unbroken or bent. "There's truth behind those rumors that I can walk through walls," he said in a gleeful tone, as if sharing a secret. "All Homunculi are gifted with an ability that would be impossible for normal humans." He snickered and let me go, allowing me to sink back to the floor in a daze. "So you see, Ryou, you can't trap me. I'll simply walk through anything you try!"

"All very well and good," Wrath interrupted with a snarl. "Now release me!"

"Why should he?" Greed shot back at him before I could do anything. "You're just going to kill him."

At that, Wrath smile, a very ugly smile that sent shudders down my spine. "No, I won't kill him," he corrected. "At least not yet. I wanted Elric down here, and if the robberies wouldn't work, perhaps a hostage would. Now." He glared down at me. "Release me before I change my mind and kill you."

I cringed and did as he said, transmuting the floor back to its original shape. When I thought it over later, I realized it wasn't a very smart thing to do; I was out of Wrath's reach and I knew Greed wouldn't kill me if he could help it. But after learning about the special abilities of Homunculi, I had no way of knowing if Wrath really could kill me right then, even though he was trapped seven feet away.

Once free, he took a minute to brush some imaginary dust off his clothes, and then he looked at me with the same ugly smile. "You look tired, young Godplayer," he hissed as he stepped closer. "Too many shocks in too little time, I gather. Why don't you get some rest?" He stepped right up to me, and before I could react, swung his hand in a horizontal chop. For the second time, stars exploded in my head, and I fell back into darkness.

* * *

The first thing I noticed when I returned to consciousness was the pounding in my head, and a similar throbbing in my left eye. I lay still, knowing that if I moved the pain would only get worse. Gradually I became aware that the air was hot and stuffy, as if in a small, mostly unused room, and that I was lying on hard ground. Also, the sound of breathing nearby alerted me to the presence of someone else.

I dared to open my eyes then and found that only one worked; my left eye was swollen shut. What little I could see of the room wasn't impressive, either. My field of vision consisted of nothing but a stone ceiling with a golden shaft of light spilling across it.

"Oh? It's about time you woke up. I thought soldiers were supposed to be made of tougher stuff than that."

The voice belonged to Greed, and I turned my head to the side slowly until I could see him, grimacing at the increased pain in my skull. The small room must have been in the least used section of the temple, for the only furnishings were a couple of spare boxes and a chair. Dust covered everything except for the chair, which he was relaxing in, tipped back so that the front feet were off the ground and his head rested against the wall. In one wall was a thick wooden door, closed and probably locked, and in the opposite wall was a narrow window, the only source of light.

I didn't bother to respond to Greed, instead choosing to reach up and touch my eye gingerly. It was sore, and probably black. Next I felt my head, finding a small lump with a split in the middle. When I brought my hand away, it was covered with dried flakes of blood. I made a face in spite of myself, wanting a bath more than anything else at that moment. "H-how long have I been out?" I asked at last.

"Almost a day," Greed replied. "The sun will be setting soon, and when it does the last train of the day will come into the station. Elric will probably be on it; Wrath sent him a wire last night, saying that we have you." He gave me a crooked grin. "Too bad for him."

I scowled back as I sat up, steadying myself against the wall as a wave of dizziness flooded me. "What…what do you want with Colonel Elric?" I snapped as soon as I could see straight again.

Greed shrugged. "_I_ don't want anything with him. I couldn't care less about him," he answered. "It's Wrath who wants him. Wrath wants revenge."

"Revenge?" An uneasy feeling settled into my gut as I thought about that. "Revenge for what? The Colonel didn't…"

"Create Wrath? No. Someone else did; he won't say who. No, the elder Elric brother took Wrath's arm and leg and denied him a chance to become human. That's what he wants revenge for." Greed laughed, sounding much more ominous in these close quarters than he had in the sanctuary. "Your precious Colonel once made a Philosopher's Stone, did you know that? He made it, and he used it all up on some other purpose. And the Homunculi who had shown him the way were killed, one by one, until only Wrath was left. And now there's me." He spread his arms out. "You ask why Wrath wants revenge? The reasons are many. And I care for none of them."

I sat in silence for several minutes, digesting this information as I stared out the window, at what little of the city I could see. The Colonel had made a Philosopher's Stone…so it _was_ real. If Greed was telling the truth. But he had no reason to lie, at least none that I could think of. And he wanted me to make one as well. He was right that I owed him that much, and perhaps he was right to want to be human, but everything about the Philosopher's Stone and any possible way to make it was classified, forbidden. It was known as the devil's research. Yet…

"You said…you could show me how to make the Philosopher's Stone," I commented softly.

"That's right." Greed sounded friendly, as if we really were brothers who had grown up together, and it sickened me.

"If you know how, why don't you make it yourself? It would save you the trouble of forcing me to do it."

"Can't." Greed leaned forward, and the front legs of his chair hit the floor with a hollow thump. "It requires an alchemist, and Homunculi can't do alchemy. It's a skill that's utterly beyond us. Besides, you owe me, remember?"

"Oh…" I stood up, making my unsteady way to the window to look out as I pondered over the events of the past couple of days. "You say you don't care about Colonel Elric," I said after a minute. "So why are you going along with Wrath?"

"He has helped me a lot over the past couple of years," Greed answered. "He had been hanging around Serra's Point for quite a while when you made me, you know. All that tragic death…" He snickered again. "Wrath figured that sooner or later some ignorant fool would attempt a transmutation, and he was right. _You_ left me for dead, but he found me, and cared for me. Gave me a name and a life, pitiful as this life is. Didn't you ever wonder what happened to me, why you never saw me again until over a year later?"

"I…" I closed my eyes and suppressed a shudder. "I wondered. And I figured you had crawled somewhere and died."

"That would have been for the best," he agreed. "If I _could _die. But I can't; you should know that by now."

This time there was no suppressing the shudder as I remembered that night when I had killed him. Catching a dagger between the eyes normally does that to someone. But he had jumped out the window only a few minutes later, jumping from an impossible height and not getting injured in the least, and threw that same dagger at my feet. "Why?" I asked. "Why can't you die?"

"One has to be alive before one can die," he replied simply. "One has to have a soul."

The sun had nearly set by now, and the sky was a blaze of beautiful colors, red and gold and violet, near the horizon, while in the darkness above the stars were coming out one by one. A solemn train whistle called, echoing through the city as its engine pulled into the station at the city's outskirts, coming to a stop to let out the weary travelers. I bit my lip, but I didn't worry too much about Ed. From what Greed had said, the Colonel had faced Wrath before. Surely he could defeat the Homunculus again. I couldn't do anything for him, so instead I continued the conversation with Greed. "Is that why you want to be human so badly? So you can die?"

It was the wrong thing to ask. Before the words had finished leaving my lips, he was up and crossing the distance between us in one quick stride. This time I kept my wits about me and started to turn, one hand raised in a defensive position, but the sudden dizziness slowed me down, and he grabbed my hair with one hand and my upraised wrist with his other hand. Twisting my arm painfully behind my back, he shoved my head forward, forcing it out the window.

"It's time you stopped asking questions," he growled in my ear. "Else I'll throw you to the ground. And it's a long way down, you see."

Indeed I could see. The room we were in was on the top floor of the temple, and ten full stories of nothing but air were between me and the stairs below. There was no way I'd be able to survive the fall, so I took the wisest course of action and clamped my mouth shut.

After letting me get a good view of the certain doom that awaited me down below, Greed pulled me back and threw me against the wall where I had originally been lying. "Don't try any tricks, either," he warned. "I'll kill you if you try to warn Elric."

His threat rang hollow after telling me earlier that he didn't care about the revenge against the Colonel, but I wasn't about to mention this. Greed was totally unpredictable, and I didn't want to find myself flying out that window. So instead I settled back against the wall and tried to formulate a plan. Maybe I couldn't warn Ed, but I could still help him _somehow_. The only key was to get away from Greed.

Ten slow minutes crawled by with both of us now silent and Greed watching me like a hawk. I guessed that he had been ordered to guard me despite the locked door. After all, I could transmute a hole in the wall as easily as he could walk through it. So I was forced to wait on pins and needles for any sign that Ed might have come on that train, that he might be here, battling the vengeful Wrath.

Fortunately, I didn't have to wait much longer. A sudden light poured through the window from below, undimmed by the last dregs of twilight. It was a light any alchemist would recognize—the light born from a transmutation. Almost immediately a familiar yell floated up to us, and I knew that Ed had indeed come. Now it was my turn to act.

"Aw, look, he's really—" Greed started, turning to the window, but the sound of my clap interrupted him, and he gasped, jerking back around to look at me.

Just as I had intended. Even as his eyes turned to me, I ducked my head and squeezed mine shut, throwing my hands out in front of me and transmuting the air itself. Brilliant light, as bright as the sun, burst into existence between us, and I heard Greed shriek in surprise and pain as the light momentarily blinded him. That moment was all I needed, though. The light faded as I brought my hands together again, and set them on the floor. I wasn't going to bother with trying to get up and dash to the doorway. I simply transmuted a hole in the stones beneath me and tumbled into the room below.

Somehow I managed to land on my feet, and I ducked into a roll to play out my momentum. I staggered when I stood up again, the dizziness returning and the pain increasing at the sudden motion. But the sound of Greed's cursing from the room above reminded me that I was by no means out of danger, and I forced my eyes to focus and the room to stop spinning. The door in this one was wide open, and I dashed through it and turned to my right, running down the hall I was now in. I had no clue where I was or how to get to the ground floor and find Ed, but I couldn't afford to stop and think about it now. I had to get away from Greed.

A thump sounded from the room I had come from, and I knew that he was finally able to see enough to take up the chase. Veering quickly to my left, I dashed into a small alcove and hid behind the small statue that rested there. Only seconds later, Greed came running past at full speed, cursing angrily with every step. As he disappeared down the hall, I slipped out of my hiding place and ran into the room across the hall. He wouldn't be fooled for long, I knew.

I looked around and couldn't help but laugh in relief as I closed the door quietly behind me. The room I had taken refuge in wasn't a room at all, but a staircase, leading down to a landing and then twisting and continuing down to the next floor. It was a great stroke of luck, but I knew that luck wouldn't last long. Greed was probably even now turning back to search the rooms.

I started down the steps, relieved to find that they didn't stop at the next floor, but continued down into darkness, most likely all the way to the ground floor. Yet I was only halfway down, between the fourth and fifth floors, when I heard a door open far above, and Greed's voice came floating down.

"Ah, silly fool, I have you now. Your footprints are too clear in the dust that lies around here."

I choked back a curse, knowing that if he heard me he would probably allow himself to fall through the stairwell until he reached me, and then he would have me again. No, he didn't yet know I was still in here, and that gave me an advantage, slight though it was. And thankfully, I had an idea.

My illusion alchemy had improved a lot since I had become a State Alchemist, and now I was able to make an illusion that would stay even after I ended the transmutation. At least, it would stay until something, a breath of wind or an object, disturbed it. Stopping at the landing between the floors, I put my hands together as quietly as I could and then held towards the corner, rearranging the air molecules as best I could in these shadows. When I finished, a person now appeared to be sitting in the corner, huddled in fright with his head buried in his knees. A person with pale hair and dark pants. I grimaced at the shoddiness of the illusion, but it was dark enough in the stairwell to fool him, at least for a few precious seconds.

And his footsteps were drawing closer. Turning, I leaned forward to grab the banister almost halfway down the stairs and swung myself down, alighting on the floor landing with only the slightest thump. I winced at that, but Greed's pace didn't get any quicker, though, and I figured he hadn't heard it. Without wasting any more time, I pulled the door open and slipped through, not bother to close it again.

The area I was in now didn't smell nearly as musty as the previous floors, and it had a good deal more decoration. At last it seemed that I was getting into the frequently used parts of the temple. I started down the hall at a run, reaching the open window at the end even as I heard Greed's voice in the stairwell behind me.

"There you are! Silly Ryou, surely you didn't think you could outrun me?" There was a short pause, and then he started cursing again. He had found my illusion.

But I was slipping onto the ledge right outside the window even as he spoke, and I faced back towards the hallway and reached down, grabbing that ledge and hanging on with all my strength as I jumped off and swung down to the window below. It was open as well—most of the windows in Lior stayed open during the summer—and I let go of the ledge as I swung through, landing and falling to my backside on the carpeted floor. After a hissed prayer of thanks that Ed and Malik hadn't been around to see that ungraceful landing, I scrambled up again and darted into a room to my right.

It appeared to be a study or an office of some sort, but I barely paid attention to it as I fell to my knees and clapped my hands, transmuting another hole in the floor. This time I was able to take the time to land on my feet and stay there. The room I was in now was the temple library; I was between two long rows of book-filled shelves. Running to one end, I found the door, which was closed and locked. But that didn't matter to me; after creating so many holes in the temple floors, making one in the wall didn't bother me at all. So after only a second I was stepping out into the hall, and the sound of a fight reached my ears, echoing through the hallway. I recognized one of the voices as Ed's, and I knew that I was only a few steps away from my destination.

This was the part of the temple that was used for grand occasions, and ten yards away, the hall became a balcony with a grand staircase leading down into the ground floor ballroom. It was from there that the fighting sounds originated, and I started towards it at a dead run.

Yet before I had gotten halfway there, a shadowy figure dropped from the ceiling, and I found myself face to face with Greed. "Boo," he said with a sick grin.

I reacted on instinct once again, this time aiming a swift uppercut to his jaw. He never saw it coming, and his head snapped back as my fist connected with his jaw. I stepped around him and ran to the staircase before he could recover. Ed and Wrath were clearly visible now in the light of the ballroom's torches and candles, locked in a combat so heated that I dared not interrupt it. Yet I could see that Ed had the upper hand. He had transmuted his automail arm into a sword, and Wrath was bleeding freely from several nicks and gashes. Also, he was trying desperately to stay away from one section of the floor, even as Ed tried just as desperately to force him to it.

Well, whatever tactic the Colonel was trying to use, I couldn't afford to wait for him to pull it. Bending down, I quickly transmuted a bit of the staircase into a sphere of stone, just small enough for me to hold. It wouldn't do to waste my daggers on someone who couldn't die, after all. After taking a second to study the combatants' moves and force my bad eye open, I reared my arm back. At that instant, they jumped apart, and I took full advantage of the opportunity.

My aim was dead on as usual, and Wrath dropped into unconsciousness as my stone hit him square on the side of the head. "Touka Koukan," I muttered to myself. "Consider us equal."

Ed, meanwhile, had jumped in surprise and whirled to face me. "Major!" he called in a tone that was half-annoyed and half-relieved. "Took you long enough."

"Had trouble of my own," I answered as I hopped down the last few steps to the bottom. "I'm glad to see you're all right."

"I—" Ed's words halted on his lips as he looked over my shoulder, and his golden eyes grew wide in an expression of fear that I had never seen on his face before. "Look out!" he cried, and before I could react, he was shoving me to the ground.

The nasty sound of metal clanging on metal rang through the air right above me, and I cringed, rolling to the side and coming back to my feet to see that Greed had entered the fight once again. He had found a sword somewhere in the temple, and he had probably been aiming his first attack at me when Ed had pushed me aside. Even now, as he fended off Ed's vicious slashes and stabs, he kept glancing at me, rage in his eyes and a trickle of blood running from his mouth, making a dark path on his unnaturally pale skin.

"C-Colonel!" I cried, angry and frightened at the same time. I could understand him fighting Wrath, but why bother with Greed? This was _my_ sin, _my_ battle. Greed could kill him, and it would be _my_ fault! With that thought driving me, I drew a dagger from my sleeve and threw it. But Greed glanced at me right at that second, and he pulled his sword around to block. The dagger flipped harmlessly to the side, but it had done its work. Greed's focus was on me now.

And Ed took full advantage of that fact. Even as Greed turned to me with a snarl, the Colonel grabbed the back of his shirt and hurled him, with the strength that only automail could have, into the area that Wrath had been trying to avoid. As he hit the ground, Ed bent down and clapped his hands together, touching the floor.

The floor around Greed began to glow, and I could see now that it was a huge transmutation circle, one that I had never seen before. Its glow also activated a second one, an exact copy on the ceiling above. Greed, caught in the middle of the circles, lay still as if paralyzed, staring up with unblinking eyes at the circle above him.

I didn't move either. I wasn't sure what those circles were or what they did, but I was certain that at any second Greed would stand up again and lunge at me, and I wasn't going to be caught unawares, not this time. So focused was I on the Homunculus that I jumped out of my skin at a soft touch on my shoulder. "Colonel!" I gasped, whirling to face him.

"Come on," he said wearily. "Those are binding circles; they're meant to trap Homunculi. But Wrath won't stay unconscious for long, and he may be able to free that one. So let's go while we can."

I could see now that he was injured; his hair, half out of its braid, was matted on one side with blood, and he cradled his real arm close to his body. Not that I looked any better. My hair was full of blood too, I was sure, and I had a black eye to top it off. "Okay," I said with a nod.

Ed led the way, and together we ran out into the night, more than ready to leave the temple behind for good.


	12. Chapter 11

Once again I must insert a spoiler warning. A lot of stuff comes to light in this chapter (which, unfortunately, consists of one big long conversation…bleh), so be prepared to learn about stuff that hasn't been revealed yet on American television.

Chapter 11

Both of us wanted to get away from Lior as soon as possible, so I didn't object at all when Ed stopped by the hotel to check out. We met Lieutenant Colonel Hiroto on the steps as we were leaving, and he didn't look very happy when Ed told him we were leaving.

"But the thief!" he protested. "He still needs to be captured and brought to justice!"

"He _has_ been captured," Ed replied irritably. "You'll find him in the temple's ballroom, though I don't suggest you move him until you consult an alchemist who's knowledgeable about binding transmutations. His accomplice is unconscious nearby. In the meantime, my subordinate has had a rough time during his stay here." He placed a hand on my shoulder. "I'll be escorting him back to Central City, where he can rest and receive the best medical attention. You can forward your report to my office there."

Hiroto's scowl deepened, but he said nothing further, and Ed stepped past him with his hand still gripping my shoulder, steering me to the cab he had rented while I had been packing.

No more trains were stopping at Lior City that night, but there would be one in the nearest town's station at two in the morning according to Ed, and he obviously wanted to catch it. So we spent the midnight hours in silence while the cab bounced steadily forward over the rough desert road, and I soon dropped to sleep despite the constant jostling.

When Ed shook me awake, the cab had stopped, idling on the curb of an otherwise empty street. My head had stopped throbbing, but the pain persisted in the form of a dull headache, and that combined with my exhaustion made me hardly aware of my surrounding as Ed ushered me through the station and onto the train. The last thing I heard as I curled up on the seat was the mournful call of the whistle, and then I returned to sleep.

* * *

The next time I awoke, I once again found myself staring at the ceiling of a hospital room, a view that was becoming far too familiar. I didn't move at first, letting perception and memory catch up to my consciousness. Gradually I realized that I had only one eye open; the other was swollen shut. Also, my head was pounding again, as if someone were swinging a hammer against the inside of my skull.

But I ignored the pain, focusing instead on the events of the past couple of days as they returned to me. I didn't remember waking up and coming to the hospital; Ed must have had an ambulance bring me. But everything else was there, crystal clear. Too clear. I wanted to forget it all. But even as that wish entered my mind, I dismissed it. There was no forgetting what had happened. This was the consequence of my sin, and I had to live with it.

"Hey!" cried a nearby voice, causing me to wince as the throbbing in my head increased. "He's awake! Hey, Ryou, are you all right?" Malik's concerned face stuck itself into my field of vision.

"Can't you talk a little quieter?" I whispered in response, noticing for the first time how dry my throat was. "My head's killing me."

"Oh. Sorry." Malik's volume was considerably lower, and he looked slightly embarrassed as he sat down beside my bed. "So, what all happened? Ed brought you back from Lior in a right state yesterday, and he hasn't been talking to me or Isis about anything."

"Yesterday?" I asked. "How long have I been out?"

"According to Ed, since the night before last. It's almost noon today," Malik answered. "Hey, you're probably pretty hungry; when's the last time you've eaten?'

"Um…" I tried to remember, but couldn't, and I gave up with a shrug.

"Well, wait here, and I'll get you something to eat!" he said, jumping up enthusiastically and nearly bumping into a nurse on the way out of the room.

The lady shook her head at his lack of apology and walked to my bedside. "Think you can sit up, Major?" she asked.

With a little effort, I managed to do so, though the act sent my head reeling. She then proceeded to give me the usual cursory health check, taking my temperature and blood pressure and shining a little light into my eyes and mouth. She had just finished and left when Malik returned bearing a bowl of tomato soup and a couple rolls, along with a glass of water.

"So, what's the story?" he asked once again as I dug in. "Did you catch that thief guy that everyone says was so dangerous? Is that how you got all beat up?"

"Well…" I took a gulp of water to stall. After all, I didn't want to talk about it, not right now, and I doubted Malik would understand my story at all. Sure, he knew about my attempt to resurrect Akira, and he had been there the first time Greed showed his face to me, but I doubted he had ever heard of Homunculi, much less knew that they existed. "I-it's kind of complicated…" I said when I could no longer gulp down water.

"And it's military business," Ed said from the doorway. "Nothing you need to know about."

Malik turned around to scowl at him. "I think Ryou can talk to me if he damn well wants to, Shorty."

"He can," the Colonel replied, giving no sign that he had noticed the slight on his height except for a small twitch near his eye. "But not about this case. It's been marked confidential, and you're just a civilian. And I need Ryou to give me the full report now." He raised his eyebrows at my friend.

Malik continued to scowl, but he got the hint. "I'll see you later, then," he said to me as he got up to leave. "If certain short Colonels will let me." He trotted quickly past Ed and out the door.

Ed made a face at his back before shutting the door, and then he walked over and took the same seat he had occupied. I leaned back against my pillows and stared at the food in front of me, no longer quite so interested in eating. How in the world was I going to explain myself? What excuses could I possibly make now?

"Ryou," he began, and his tone wasn't accusatory and cold, as I had expected, but warm, and even sympathetic. "Who did you try to resurrect?"

My head snapped around, and I looked at him wide-eyed. _He knew._ There was no excuse-making now; my secret was out in the open. It wasn't _did I try_, but _who_. No room for misjudgment, no way to convince him otherwise. _Who did you try to resurrect?_ "H-h-how?" I asked, my voice sounding small. "How do you know about that?"

"It's obvious to those who know what to look for," he answered, a mixture of pain and sympathy in his golden eyes. "And even if I didn't know before now, that Homunculus…" He didn't have to finish the sentence. "So…who was he? Or rather, who was he supposed to be?"

I bit my lip so hard that a trickle of blood ran down my chin. Right now I was wishing I were somewhere else, anywhere else, that I didn't have to be here, answering these questions, talking about the one thing I regretted most. But I had no choice, so I took a deep, shuddering breath, wiped the blood off my face, and answered, "M-my brother. He should have…he was supposed…it was my twin, Akira."

Ed merely raised an eyebrow, and I turned to stare at the opposite wall, which was much easier to look at, and forced myself to plow on. "H-he was the older one, and my best friend. He encouraged me to keep studying alchemy, even after our father told me to give it up." I paused long enough to draw in another shaky breath. "He died in the accident."

"Serra's Point?" Ed asked. I nodded, and he continued, "That makes sense; it wasn't your legs that you lost in that catastrophe, it was your brother. No wonder you never wanted to talk about it."

"That's not quite true," I corrected, still refusing to look at him. "I did lose my right leg in that wreck. But my left…"

"Was lost during the transmutation process," he finished for me, his tone growing suddenly cold and angry. "Tell me something, Ryou. What the _hell_ made you think you could pull something like that off? How could you possibly believe that you could succeed at resurrecting someone? _Look_ at me, damn it!"

"I-I-I don't know!" I cried, cringing, cringing back even as I turned back to his furious face. "I-I was too y-young to know any better! I-I thought…I thought that maybe no one had done it because no one had tried! That…that…"

"That because you were so good at illusions, the most difficult branch of alchemy, your skills and your theories were superior to everyone else's? Even though you were just a child?" Ed's anger didn't abate, and I felt the strong urge to transmute a hole in the ground underneath me and drop into it, just to get away from that golden glare. "Weren't you the arrogant little bastard?" he continued mercilessly. "How old were you? Thirteen? Fourteen?"

"Fifteen. I was fifteen at the time. And yes," I admitted, pulling my knees up, wrapping my arms around my legs, and burying my face in them. "I was arrogant. I believed I could do anything. That's what my mother always told me."

A full minute ticked by with neither of us speaking. I didn't dare look up; the fury that ruled Ed's face scared me too much. I was almost sure that when next he spoke, he would be informing me that I was going to jail, awaiting a court martial, spending the rest of my life in prison. Yet when he finally did speak, the anger in his voice was gone, replaced by a weariness that I couldn't begin to fathom.

"What did he call himself? The Homunculus, I mean."

I looked up at him again and breathed a quiet sigh of relief. The anger had indeed vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, and the look of sympathy was back in place on the Colonel's face. "Greed," I said quietly. "He called himself…Greed."

"Greed," Ed repeated with a small chuckle. "You know, that actually makes me feel a bit better about this mess."

"Sir?" I replied blankly. Why in the world would my mistake make him feel better?

"Greed," he explained as if it should be obvious. "If Wrath made the mistake of recruiting him, then I don't have to worry much about his revenge plots. Greed cares only about himself, and he'll do anything to get what he wants. Getting all in Wrath's way in the process." Ed looked thoroughly happy at the prospect.

That answer was just as confusing as his good mood. "H-how could you know that?" I asked.

The smirk on Ed's face dropped away, replaced with the weariness from before. "This isn't the first time I have fought Homunculi, Ryou. Surely you've figured that out by now."

"Y-yeah," I answered, trying to remember what Greed had told me back in Lior. "He said…Greed said…that you'd fought them before. That you…even made…a Philosopher's Stone."

"Oh, he did, did he? I imagine Wrath told him part of that story. But it's not quite true; I'm not the one who made the Philosopher's Stone. I had been seeking it for a long, long time, and a man called Scar dropped it into my lap." He signed and ran a hand through his bangs. "Is that what they want from you now? To make another Philosopher's Stone?"

"Greed does. Wrath…he only wants revenge on you."

"That's no surprise. Wrath has been trying to kill me for years; I'm used to it by now. I just wish he didn't drag you into it." He stood up and walked around my bed to stand at the window and stare out at the heavy gray sky beyond. "So…what do you plan to do? Try for the Philosopher's Stone?"

I leaned back and stared at ceiling in contemplation. I didn't know what to do. So much had happened…so much had come to light…and everything was still so confusing. A madman with the face of my brother, seeking an artifact that I had long believed never existed. _So he can become human and die,_ I thought. Such a course seemed fruitless to me; why seek life only to die? The thought only confused me further. And then there was the Philosopher's Stone itself, research that was forbidden, taboo. Just as much as human transmutation. "Should I?" I asked at last. "They call it the devil's research. And I think…I think he only wants to die anyways."

"And well he should." Ed turned to give me a sharp look. "You've made a mistake, and now you have to correct it."

"Are you saying…" I swallowed in an effort to get rid of the lump forming in my throat. "…that I _should_ kill him? But…"

"No buts," he interrupted, walking back around my bed. "Greed is an artificial being with no soul, and he doesn't belong in this world. You must remove him. But you don't need the Philosopher's Stone for that; there are easier ways to get rid of Homunculi."

"Then why haven't you killed Wrath?" I pressed. "Or is it impossible for you? Greed said you weren't the one who created him…"

"No," he answered, slumping into his chair and running both hands over his face. "I didn't. I created another. But that's not why I can't kill Wrath." He took his hands away and looked at me again. "It's rather complicated, but I'll try to explain. Homunculi don't have souls."

"I know."

"But do you know why they can still function, have some semblance of life?"

I shook my head, unease creeping up inside me. I already didn't like the path this was taking.

"It's because they use the lives of others." Ed suddenly looked old, far older than his thirty years. "It's the Philosopher's Stone, or rather an incomplete prototype of it. Human lives are needed to make it, many human lives. That's why it's known as the devil's research. These prototypes…they're small, and they look like glowing red rocks, but that's the source of the Homunculi's power. They eat those rocks, and carry them around inside their bellies, feeding off the lives of the people who were used to make them. You have to make them cough up those rocks. Then you can kill them."

Horror and disgust washed over me with such power that I felt like throwing up. _My God…I had no idea…no wonder…it's forbidden._ I swallowed again, harder, and clenched my hands into fists in an effort to stop the shaking. "How…" I whispered hoarsely, my throat very dry. "How do you…make them cough it up?"

"The bones of the being they were supposed to be." Ed's eyes bored into me, now filled with an intensity that scared me as much as his words. "It's their weakness; they become immobile if they get near the bones of the person who should have been resurrected. And if you get the bones close enough, they'll start coughing up the red stones. That binding circle that I used on Greed back in Lior helps as well. It's the only thing, besides the bones, that _can_ bind them."

"So…you're telling me…I have to go back to Serra's Point…and dig up my brother's bones?" I felt sick again, and only through massive effort did I keep back the bile that rose in my throat.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. It's the only way to stop him. And Ryou…he has to be stopped."

"So…" This explanation was doing nothing to lessen my confusion; in fact, I felt more bewildered than ever. "Why can't you kill Wrath?"

"Wrath has no left over body," Ed answered, his gaze shifting back out the window, where rain had now begun pouring down. "The woman who created him had given birth to a stillborn child. She couldn't handle it, so she tried to transmute him back to life, using his body as the base instead of a mix of chemicals. So you see, Wrath has no weakness. It was used to create him."

"Oh…" I frowned. "So why does he hate _you_ so much?"

"That's a long story, and a confusing one," he answered. "To sum it up, he wants my body. He thinks that if he kills me, he can take my body and become human that way. But that's a story for a different time."

"Right," I said, more than happy to drop it. I had too many other questions without going on that tangent. "So…how could you tell? That I had tried human transmutation, I mean?"

"I was wondering when you'd get around to that," Ed said as his lips turned up in a half-hearted attempt at a smile. "Do you remember the day you tried to resurrect your brother?"

"Huh?" I answered, taken off guard by the abrupt change in subject. "Well…yeah. How could I forget?"

"Then you remember what happened in the middle of the transmutation. You remember what you saw."

"Yeah…" His words sent me hurtling back to that night, the one night I had tried for almost two years to forget. "It had gone smoothly at first. I thought it was working. But then…" I stopped to draw in a shuddering breath. "Then…something changed. The light…it stopped shining. But the wind continued, worse than before. It was…I was terrified. And then…something started happening to my leg. It…it…"

"Disappeared," Ed finished for me. "Like something was eating it away."

"Yeah. And…and when I looked up, I saw a gate." Terror rose in me once again at the mere memory of the unearthly structure. "It was huge…and…frightening. I…I don't know why. But then…then it…."

"Opened," Ed finished once again. "What did you see beyond it, Ryou?"

"I…don't really know. It was more like I _felt_ what was beyond. I felt…I felt like all the knowledge in the world, in the universe, was being crammed into my head, all at once. I…I really don't remember what happened after that. The next I knew, the transmutation was finished, and…and…Akira wasn't…instead of him, there was a monster."

Ed nodded. "I know," he said softly. "But back to the gate. You said you felt like all the knowledge of the universe was being crammed into your head. And that's the truth; it really was."

"Huh?" The expression was becoming a litany for me.

"That's why you can perform alchemy without using a circle. That knowledge is still in your head, Ryou. It tells you how much energy you need and what to do with it, so you have no need of the circle. And there's much more than that, lying dormant inside you, ready to be called upon when it's needed."

I took a moment to let his words sink in. They sounded utterly absurd, but I knew them to be true. It was a gut feeling, and it scared me for some reason. "So…" I said after a minute. "You've also seen beyond the gate?"

"Yes, I have," Ed answered, pain filling his eyes as he continued to stare out the window. "My brother and I…we lost our mother at a young age, and naturally we wanted her back. I was twelve when we tried to resurrect her; he was eleven." He looked back at me. "But that's another story for another time. Meanwhile, do you have anything else you want to know?"

I shook my head as exhaustion suddenly took hold of me. All I wanted to do now was go back to sleep, escape the troubles the world had thrown at me.

"Great," Ed said, standing up again. "Most of this conversation is between you and me, so if you don't want to mention it to anyone else, you don't have to."

"But the report!" I protested.

"Your transgressions aren't of any consequence to the report," Ed replied smoothly. "What Mustang doesn't know won't hurt him." He smirked a little. "Serves him right for sending me the full Lior report before you left. I bet he laughed it up, knowing that you'd be thrown in jail the second you stepped into town."

"He'd do that?" I asked in utter confusion.

"Oh, beyond a doubt," Ed said, pulling his coat off the back of his chair and slinging it across his shoulders. "It's his way of testing you, seeing how you'd react in such a situation."

"I'll remember that," I said dryly.

"You do that. See you around, Major." Ed walked from the room, and Malik jumped back in before he could close the door.

"So what was all that about?" he asked, coming over to sit in the same chair Ed had used.

I shook my head and looked the other way, unwilling to relive the worst moments of my life for the second time that day. "It's nothing important, Malik," I said as exhaustion dragged my eyelids shut. "I just want to rest for now."

There was a short silence, and I could almost hear his thoughts battling each other. "Okay," he said finally, and I sighed in quiet relief. "I'll…I'll be back tomorrow. That's when the doctor says you can go home."

"Thanks," I said as I heard the chair scrape back.

"Yeah," he said. "See ya."

Then the door closed, and I was alone with my thoughts. But even they didn't sustain me for long, and I fell back into a deep sleep.


	13. Chapter 12

Dedicated to the Roy Mustang fan in all of us.

Chapter 12

Fuhrer Mustang came to visit me the next day as I was getting ready to leave. "So the doctor has already ordered your release," he said, striding through the door without even bothering to knock. "That's good. Very good."

I dropped the vase of flowers I had been holding as he spoke, hardly noticing as it shattered on the floor, and snapped to attention. "Fuhrer!" I blurted without thinking. "What are you doing here?" I winced even as the words left my lips, mentally cursing myself for being so rude to the head of the military.

But Mustang wasn't insulted at all; in fact, he chuckled. "I just came to see how our most promising young alchemist was faring. By the way, you might want to fix that." He gestured at the vase. "Miss Ishtar would probably be disappointed to learn you left her gift broken on the floor."

I felt my face redden as I knelt down to repair the vase, making sure that not a shard of glass or drop of water remained on the floor. "I'm faring well, considering the mess I was in," I answered as I picked the vase back up and set it on the bedside table.

"That's true," the Fuhrer said with a nod. "And I apologize for sending you into it. However, I must congratulate you on getting out of the first predicament with such grace. It would have been a shame if you had chosen to fight with the officers who had mistaken you for the thief." He smirked.

I turned away to hide my scowl. "Thanks, I think."

He chuckled again. "You'd better get used to dealing with unexpected situations, Illusory," he said. "They're common in the military, even during peace time. Other than that, I'm here to tell you that you'll be reporting directly to me for the next several weeks."

"What!" I turned around so fast that I bumped the table. The vase wobbled precariously on the edge, and I grabbed it before it could fall and break again. "Why?"

"FullMetal will be gone on a mission for an unknown amount of time," Mustang explained. "He intends to track the Homunculi down and find out where they're hiding."

I froze, not daring to look at him. _My God, he knows about the Homunculi! But how much? Did Ed tell him about him the connection between Greed and me?_

As if to answer that question, the Fuhrer's voice cut through my thoughts like a knife. "You know, I could have you court-martialed for lying about the loss of your legs during the Exam's interview."

I stared at him, eyes wide with horror, but he was smirking again. "But it's not the first time I've covered for a subordinate," he continued with a nonchalant shrug. "Besides, your research on illusion alchemy is invaluable, and I daresay you've become Colonel Elric's favorite alchemist." He grinned. "Your current orders are to remain in Central and continue your research. Let me know if you discover anything interesting." He turned to leave.

"But—" I started, but stopped myself abruptly. I wasn't really in any position to be asking favors.

Mustang turned back, giving me a critical look. "Yes?"

I stared down at the floor, wishing I hadn't spoken up. "I-I was hoping that I could take a short leave and return to Serra's Point. To, ah, visit my family." I fidgeted as I finished, well aware of how lame my excuse was. Then I jerked my head up in surprise as Mustang walked over to me and rested his hands on my shoulders.

"Ryou," he said, smirk gone and black eyes full of unexpected sympathy. "You have just been through a terrible time and learned truths about this world that no one should ever have to learn. What's more, the Homunculi are still out there, and we don't know where or when they may choose to strike again. No, you must stay here in Central. Rest. Relax. FullMetal will return soon, and it is then that you may act. Until that time, I'll be expecting your research reports." His hands dropped from my shoulders, and he turned and strode from the room.

I returned to packing up my few belongings, unsure of what to think. Part of me felt frustrated, angry. Why did everyone suddenly feel the need to protect me? Another part was relieved that I wouldn't be returning to Serra's Point anytime soon. I was not looking forward to digging up Akira's grave.

* * *

The next several weeks were as quiet as I could have hoped for. The only scandal in town was Malik's latest antics, and not a word was heard from Ed. My research continued smoothly, with only one major breakthrough in that time.

That had been fun to report to Fuhrer Mustang. As time had gone by, my awe of him had lessened. I learned the hard way that he was a practical joker, and I decided to report this breakthrough in person, simply to return that certain favor.

"What is it?" he snapped irritably as I pushed through his office doors, not even bothering to look up from the papers he was reading. "I'm a busy man; make it quick."

"Oh, I think you'll like this, sir," I replied, carefully keeping the smirk off my face.

He looked up, quirking one dark eyebrow as he studied me. "Couldn't you have sent me the report through a subordinate, Illusory? That's what they're there for."

"But it's illusion alchemy, Fuhrer. It's understood best when seen."

"Fine." He settled back in his chair, giving me a glare that would melt metal. "Let's see it."

I bit my lip and flushed a little under the heat of that glare, but it still didn't deter me in the least. After setting the report file on his desk, I took a step back, concentrated, and clapped my hands together, resting them at my sides as the transmutation began. Almost instantly, darkness clouded my vision, the kind of pitch blackness that's impossible to see through. But I could still hear just fine, and I took great satisfaction in the startled yelps that Mustang and his aide, Sergeant Falman, made.

"W-where did he go?" Falman exclaimed, and I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing. Mustang's chair scraped back, and his footsteps sounded loud on the floor as he came around his desk and hurried to the door.

"That damn brat!" he snarled. "What in the world did he do, anyways?"

I chose that moment to turn around, and the room snapped back into view. "Looking for me?" I asked innocently.

Mustang jumped so high his head nearly hit the door frame above. I broke into laughter, and off to the side, Falman joined in.

"So," the Fuhrer said, turning around to give me another irritated glare. "You've discovered the secret to invisibility."

"With drawbacks," I replied.

"Like no one else being able to do it due to the severe difficulty?" he said dryly, returning to his seat. "I imagine one would have to be able to perform transmutations without a circle to master it."

"Not at all, sir," I said hastily, pulling open the report file and rifling through the pages. "I took the time to determine the correct circle needed for the transmutation." I pulled out the drawing of the circle and shoved it across the desk to him. "Although it is rather difficult, and maintaining the transmutation while moving is nearly impossible, even for me. Plus, since I was bending the light around myself, none reached my eyes."

"Making you blind," Mustang deduced, and I nodded. "Well, that's very interesting," he continued, returning the drawing to the report file. "I'll be sure to look through all this later today. As for now, I'm busy. So you get back to work, and I'll return to mine."

I grinned and saluted, very satisfied with the meeting. _I'll have to find more ways to get under the Fuhrer's skin and get away with it…_

* * *

The Fuhrer came to visit me again the very next day. I was sitting at a table in the very back of the library, next to a large window that overlooked the park across the road, yet I heard him coming as soon as he barged through the doors.

"Where is that damn Illusory?" he yelled, stomping along the rows of bookshelves and research tables.

"Fuhrer, please!" the librarian protested. "This is a library; you must—Fuhrer!" She broke off with a gasp. As he rounded the corner and approached me, I could see why.

He had no arms.

I did a double-take and stared in shock as he marched up to me, face flushed in anger. "Reverse it," he ordered as he leaned forward. The table in front of me thumped, though he didn't seem to touch it.

I grinned in sudden understanding. "It seems you've discovered the secret to invisibility, Fuhrer," I said, trying my hardest not to smirk. "Or partial invisibility, at least."

"You think this is funny, don't you?"

"Ah…yes, sir," I answered honestly. "Though I am curious as to how you managed to transmute the air so that light bends around you not matter how much you move."

A vein popped out on his forehead, and his eye twitched. "Just reverse it, and maybe I'll consider letting you keep your silver watch."

I quickly clapped my hands together and placed them on Mustang's upper arms, reversing the transmutation. The blue cloth of his uniform painted itself into the air, starting where I had touched him and working its way down until even his white gloved hands were visible. "Better?"

He straightened and flexed his fingers, looking at them as if they had betrayed him. "Much better," he said. "I can't walk around for the rest of my life with invisible arms, after all."

"Sounds fun to me," I said, and this time I couldn't help but smirk at the exasperated look he gave me. "Seriously, sir, could you tell me how you managed to make the transmutation stay?"

My question seemed to soothe his ego, and he managed his own smirk in response. "I studied your report and made a few changes to the circle. Now I suppose I should set to finding out a way to reverse it on my own."

I gave him a blank look. "All you have to do to reverse it is bend the light back to its original state. The same transmutation circle should suffice for that."

"Right." His face reddened slightly. "I knew that. Well then, I suppose I should set to finding out how to get the transmutation to cover a larger area. What's so funny, Major?"

I choked back the rest of my laughter, though I couldn't get rid of my grin. "Nothing, sir."

"Continue with your research, Major," he said, his eye twitching again. I waited until he had turned back and disappeared among the shelves, and then I burst into giggles again.

* * *

Another month passed quietly, and still no word came from Ed about the Homunculi or anything else. To my face, Fuhrer Mustang brushed it off, insisting that he was fine, that it was normal. But there was no ignoring the tension that was building a little more each day in military headquarters. People were noticing the long absence of the colorful Head of State Alchemy, and they were beginning to wonder and speculate.

And I was growing more worried as time passed and the cooler winds began to blow. Few people knew what he was up to, but the fact that I did just seemed to make it worse for me. While others could wonder about him, and imagine that maybe everything's fine, that maybe he's just visiting his brother in Rizenbul, I knew that he was on a mission, that he very well may be in danger.

Or very well may already be dead.

I didn't see the Fuhrer much anymore, and when I did, he seemed to always be in a hurry. His face wore a perpetually tight, grim look now, and though he still assured me that Colonel Elric would be fine, he didn't seem to believe it himself.

He finally summoned me to his office one day, sending Sergeant Falman all the way to the Ishtar residence. "At least he picked a rainy day when there's nothing to do," Malik said as I stared at the summons with a frown. Today was the first day off I had had in quite a while, and I wasn't happy with the interruption.

"Perhaps," I said, still irritated. "I'll be back in a little while." I grabbed my heavy overcoat to ward away the rain and followed Falman out to the waiting cab.

The driver started off almost before I had time to shut the door, and with a start I recognized Brigadier General Hawkeye behind the wheel. "G-General?" I stammered, a little confused. She nodded, acknowledging my presence, and turned left at the first intersection—the wrong way to the capitol. "Where are we going? I-I thought the Fuhrer—"

"The Fuhrer does wish to speak to you," she interrupted. "But not in his office. You'll see where we're going when we get there."

I nodded uncertainly and looked around, noticing for the first time that the Falman hadn't gotten in. I frowned but decided not to comment, choosing to stare out the rain-soaked city instead.

We passed ten minutes without speaking, the silence broken only by the sounds of the tires on the road and the rain spattering against the windshield. Gradually the scenery changed, the buildings of Central City falling away and being replaced by homes. Then even those were left behind, and rolling green hills stretched to the horizon, punctuated by several copses of trees. Then came a graveyard, white tombstones stretching over the hills forlornly. I shuddered, remembering an old superstition Akira had once had.

"_If you don't hold your breath when you pass a graveyard, you'll be the next to die!"_

Vaguely, I wondered if he had forgotten to hold his breath while passing one on the day of the accident. Shuddering again, I shook my head to banish the thought from my mind. The cab began to slow down, and I blinked, realizing that Hawkeye was taking me _into_ the cemetery.

As she turned down a dirt road and passed through a gate, I couldn't help but wonder if the superstition extended to visiting graveyards as well.

"Frightened?" Hawkeye asked suddenly, her cool red eyes studying me in the rear view mirror.

"Not really," I answered as she slowed to a stop. "Just bad memories resurfacing."

She didn't bother to ask, instead climbing out and motioning for me to follow. Together we climbed up a hill, passing numerous tombstones, most with some kind of title. "This is a military graveyard," Hawkeye said as we neared the top. "Most of the people who rest here gave their lives in the line of duty."

Fuhrer Mustang stood at the crest of the hill, one hand resting against the nearest stone. He turned as we approached and gave me a small nod. "Major," he greeted.

I saluted and kept my confused silence.

"I suppose you're wondering why I called you to a cemetery for a meeting," he continued, turning back to the gravestone and picking up a picture. "I wanted you to meet a friend of mine." He handed the picture to me.

I took it, though my confusion only heightened. The photo was of Mustang, a younger Mustang, wearing the same trademark smirk. Beside him, grinning like the whole world was a joke, stood a man with a slightly darker complexion, black hair, and striking green-gold eyes.

"Brigadier General Maes Hughes," Mustang said as I looked back up at him. "He was my best friend, said he'd push me all the way to becoming Fuhrer. That was back in the days of the wars with Ishbal and Lior. He's been dead for sixteen years now." He looked back to the grave, but not before I caught the sorrow and bitterness in his eyes. "He was killed by a Homunculus. I'm not sure which, and I guess I'll never know. Only one of that bunch is still alive anyways."

"Wrath," I surmised, and he nodded, still not looking back at me.

"FullMetal finally deemed me worthy of a report," he continued. "It seems that the Homunculi have been hiding in East City, but that they're on the move again. They're back in Central, and may have been for weeks now. It's not safe for you here any more."

I opened my mouth in a protest, but he cut me off before I could get a word out. "You're to go to Serra's Point on official leave." He looked back to me at last, one corner of his mouth quirked in a slight smile. "To visit your family. And I suggest you patch up your relationship with your father while your there."

"M-my father?" I looked to the ground and fidgeted. "I'm not sure about that. He…he doesn't acknowledge my existence any more."

"You'd be surprised," he said dryly. "Ryou, value your time with your family and friends. You never know what may happen down the road." He took back the photo and gave it a long look before setting it back on the gravestone, heedless of the rain. "Brigadier General Hawkeye will take you directly to the train station, and Sergeant Falman will meet you there with your personal effects. Take care of yourself, Illusory." He saluted.

I returned it, feeling more than a little disturbed at the notion that Greed had been in town for quite a while, and could have been watching my every move the whole time. As I followed Hawkeye back to the cab, I couldn't help but glance around, half-expecting Greed to jump at me from behind a tombstone.

But nothing of the sort happened, and I climbed back into the cab without incident. Then I realized that Mustang hadn't told me anything about Ed's situation.

"General?" I asked tentatively. "Do you know where Colonel Elric is now?"

"The telegram didn't say," she answered. "We assume it came from East City, but there's no way of knowing. He only said that the Homunculi had been there up until a few weeks ago, and that they are currently in Central."

I nodded and fell silent once again as the possibilities whirled through my mind. But Hawkeye must have seen the worry written all over my face, for she gave me a brief smile as she stopped in the curb in front of the train station.

"Don't worry about the FullMetal Alchemist, Major. He's survived far worse situations than this, and he'll be fine now. Focus on your own mission for now."

"What mission?" I asked innocently. "I'm on leave."

She smiled again. "And that's all anyone should know. Good luck, Major."

* * *

In case you're wondering where the bs that composed the bulk of this chapter came from, it was inspired by FMA. In the anime, there's a show that takes a break from the storyline to poke fun at Mustang. So the basic theme of the series is drama-drama-drama-angst-angst-angst-COMEDY-drama-drama-angst. I don't think that episode has reached American television yet, but it's coming. I thought I'd stay true to it. That, my friends, is the result of too much sugar and too little sleep. At any rate, enjoy and please leave a review. I love my reviews, and my reviewers. I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or FullMetal Alchemist. 


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Things had been relatively quiet in Central City for months now, but if I was expecting the train ride to Serra's Point to be uneventful, I was sorely disappointed. Most of the trip passed by in peace, but about three hours before our expected arrival in Serra's Point, the hijackers made their presence known.

"Ladies and gentlemen, stay calm and in your seats," boomed the voice over the PA system as several of the passengers in my car stood up and revealed guns. "This train is now under the control of the Riverdock Gang. Just do what we say, and no one will get hurt."

Everyone around me cowered in their seats as the thugs took up positions at the car's exits, but I merely sighed in exasperation and began wracking my brains for a plan to foil the hijackers and capture them, or at least their leader. But everything I came up with seemed certain to end in disaster, so I settled in and waited to be robbed of what little money I was carrying. I was just one person, even if I was a State Alchemist, and unless there were other military officers on board, I couldn't take the risk.

A little girl was crying somewhere in the car behind me, and I closed my eyes, trying hard to ignore it. _I should be doing something about this,_ I couldn't help but think. _But what could I possibly do that wouldn't get anyone killed?_

The door at the front of the carriage banged open, interrupting my musings, and through it stepped a giant of a man whom I presumed was the leader of the bandits. "All right, folks," he boomed, brandishing his shotgun. "Just pass all your jewelry and money to the person closest to the aisle and drop it in the sack as my buddy passes by. If everyone cooperates, we'll soon be out of here without a fuss."

He stepped aside to let a grinning lackey with a large, half-full sack get by. The lackey started down the aisle with the bag held open in front of him, and I smirked to myself, thinking how easily all the passengers could hide most of their money and give the hijackers only part of the loot. At least, that was what I planned on doing.

The train passed into a tunnel, and suddenly the only illumination came from the lamps set into the walls. Almost at the same time, the door at the front banged open again, and a harsh, high-pitched voice filled the car.

"Out of my way, meathead! I'm still searching."

I ducked instinctively, a cold stab of fear shooting down my spine. _Oh, God, please tell me it isn't him,_ I prayed, but I knew it was in vain. Greed's voice was unmistakable. He was here. On this train.

Probably searching for me.

"Oh little State Alchemist," came his softly mocking voice. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."

I gritted my teeth and shuddered, knowing that he'd find me sooner or later, but unable to muster the courage to stand up and reveal myself. Then the lackey came to my seat, and he looked at me and grinned wider.

"Oi, Greed!" he called back down the train. "I think I found your—"

His words were suddenly cut off as I lashed out, landing a brutal kick on his chin that snapped his head back and sent him stumbling into the seat across the aisle. The man who sat there yelped and squeezed himself closer to his window, but the thug landed on top of him anyways.

With a sigh, I decided it was best to get this confrontation over with. He knew where I was now, and I wasn't going to risk him harming anyone else on this train just to get to me. I stood up and faced him.

He was a quarter of the way down the carriage, wearing his sadistic grin, his red eyes gleaming in the dim light. "Ah, Ryou," he sighed. "What were you planning to do? Surely you wouldn't jump out the window. We're in a tunnel; you'd be squashed against the wall!"

I took a shaky breath and ignored his jibes. "Why do you have to drag all these people into this?" I demanded. "Your quarrel is with me!"

He shrugged carelessly. "Free money is a good reason. Besides, these fellows were planning to hijack a train even before I joined up. When I saw that lady General bring you to the station, I merely convinced them that this would be the perfect train to target. So what are you going to do about it?" He walked closer until he was only three feet away, but I didn't dare back away. "The Fuhrer was stupid enough to send you away from Central, where you were under the military's protection, and now you can't get away from me, Ryou. Why do you try?"

"Who said anything about trying to get away from you?" I retorted. Just then, the train hurtled out of the tunnel and back into the broad daylight, and the sudden brightness made everyone on the train wince and shield their eyes. I, however, had been anticipating it; many were the times I had traveled to Central City and other towns south of Serra's Point, and I knew the lay of the tracks almost by heart. Even as Greed and the bandits closed their eyes and looked away, I was moving, whirling back to the window I had been sitting beside and kicking it.

The glass shattered and blew back along the train, and behind me came Greed's surprised gasp. But before he could do anything more, I twisted around, grabbed him, and pulled us both back out of the window.

The sharp edges of the broken glass cut into my back, but I ignored it, my mind focused on only one thought. _I can't do anything about the stupid bandits, but I can get _him_ away. I have to get him away!_

For a heartbeat, Greed's twisted, furious face filled my vision as we both tumbled out the window, and then he pushed me away, and I was faced with the ground rushing up to me. _Okay. Maybe this wasn't such a great idea. _Automatically, I flipped around to land on my feet, but I had underestimated the speed of the train, and as I landed, the force was enough to make my automail buckle at the ankles and knees.

My scream of agony was muffled and broken as I pitched forward and began to roll. Sometime during the chaos of those few seconds I slammed my head into a rock, and the pain of that distracted me from the pain in my legs. Then my uncontrolled roll stopped short as I ran into something hard and unmoving.

Something that kicked me hard as I laid there and tried to reorient myself.

"You fool human, what did you go and do that for!" Greed yelled, and I cringed, grabbing at the stumps of my legs where the automail was connected. He only ruthlessly kicked me again. "You can't tell me that hurts. It's _metal_."

"And it's connected to the nerves in my legs," I snapped back, in too much pain to think about my fear of him. "The synapse rebound is what hurts." I glared up at him with red-tinged vision and realized then that my head was bleeding, probably from hitting that rock.

He chuckled, apparently amused by my show of defiance. "What a pitiful sight you are, Ryou. I could kill you right now, and there's nothing you could do about it. Why, you can't even walk with your legs mangled like that."

As I reached up to wipe the blood off my face, I realized that he was right. Not only was I pathetic, but I was now totally incapable of escaping him. _Well, at least I got him away from the people on the train,_ I thought dimly, turning my eyes to the direction the train had disappeared in. But we were on a hill, and the tracks were a good twenty feet above me. Even if I had been level with them, no doubt the train would have already passed out of sight.

"No use looking for the train; it's not going to stop just because you were stupid enough to jump out."

"Fine!" I said, wiping at my face one more time in exasperation as the pain in my head intensified. "Kill me then!"

Greed blinked, and then laughed, clutching his sides and soon falling over. I stared at him, and eventually he calmed down enough to talk again. "Kill you?" he gasped, still holding his sides. "_Kill_ you? I said I could, not that I would! You still have to make the Philosopher's Stone for me, Ryou."

"Make the Philosopher's Stone?" I shook my head and instantly regretted it as dizziness joined the pain and my vision split in two. "I don't…I don't think…no…"

"Ah, poor Ryou," he crooned, getting up and walking over to crouch beside me. Cold fingers brushed my forehead, and I tried in vain to flinch away. "You don't know what you're saying. You've bumped your head again; it's a miracle you're still awake. There now; I'll take you home. And I'll tell you the secrets of the Stone on the way."

He tried to pull me to my feet, but they were no more than twisted scraps of metal now, and I wasn't inclined to stand up in the first place. More than anything, I just wanted to pass out, to escape the pain and the dizziness and the still-lingering fear of his presence. But he tugged viciously on my arms, pulling me up and rolling under me and lifting me up until he was carrying me on his back.

"Rest easy now, Ryou," he said, and he started walking.

* * *

There was no telling how long he walked, tirelessly, unerringly, following the railroad tracks to Serra's Point. I lost consciousness at the beginning of the journey, and when I next became aware, the air was filled with the golden light of the sunset. But it didn't seem real; it seemed like a dream, this carbon copy of my brother walking across a railroad bridge, the deep canyon of a mountain river yawning below as he carried me steadily onward, the way Akira might have carried me had I been hurt when we were children. Maybe it was that feeling, that surrealism, or maybe it was the strength and closeness of Akira's memory that drove me to ask a question that I had wondered secretly ever since learning about Greed. A question that I never would have asked at any other time.

"Do you…remember anything? Of the time before…Akira died?"

His step faltered, and I half-expected him to throw me off the bridge. It wouldn't be the first time he reacted violently to a personal question. But he kept going, keeping his silence until he had reached the end of the bridge. As he stepped onto the ground beside the track and kept going, he finally answered, "We're not supposed to have memories."

"But do you?" I persisted.

He didn't answer, and eventually I drifted back into unconsciousness.

* * *

Night had fallen, and in the valley below, golden specks of light dotted the darkness. Lights in windows. Streetlamps. The small tourist town of Serra's Point was just as picturesque in the dead of night as it was in broad daylight. It was the first sight that met my eyes when I awakened again. Greed was still plodding on, stepping carefully down the last slope that would lead us into town, and vaguely I wondered if he had stopped to rest at all.

The pounding in my head was still there, a now-familiar ache that I had long ago learned to tolerate. Thankfully, my vision seemed to have returned to normal, though I couldn't be sure in the darkness, and I didn't feel quite as dizzy. But even as I assessed my condition, I couldn't push reality away.

I was coming home. And I doubted I was welcome.

Another hour passed before we reached the outskirts of town. Greed automatically turned down the lane that led to my old house, but I stopped him with a rough jerk on the collar. "No, I can't go there."

He paused and looked over his shoulder, annoyance gleaming in his cat-like red eyes. "Then what exactly were you coming home to, idiot?"

"The automail shop," I replied, ignoring the insult. "Fifth intersection down this road, turn right. The shop's two more streets down. You can't miss the sign."

Greed snorted, but he started down the road to the shop. "I remember," he said suddenly, startling me. "We…we were playing cards. I kept winning."

I blinked in confusion, and he turned to give that annoyed look over his shoulder again. "Your question from earlier, idiot."

It was then that I remembered waking during the trip. The cool, crisp air and deep canyon. And the question. The question that I wouldn't have dared voice had I not had a concussion. And now I could do nothing but keep a shocked silence as he continued.

"I remember…being afraid. For you. And there are others, from better times. You…you liked transmuting illusions, especially ones of kittens. I liked it, too."

The automail shop was in sight, and he spoke no more, instead quickening his pace. I gritted my teeth as my head complained about the extra jostling, but I was struck numb by his words, unable to speak, much less ask him to slow down. Then he stopped abruptly and raised a hand to knock on the door.

No one answered at first, and Greed growled softly under his breath in irritation before raising his hand to bang on the door, and bang again after a couple of minutes.

"Be patient, I'm coming!" called a voice thick with weariness, and I couldn't help but grimace. _Sorry, Atemu. Didn't mean to wake you._

The elder Mutou brother pulled open the door, wearing only a pair of trousers and rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Couldn't you have waited until—" he began. His voice seemed to fail him in mid-sentence when he saw us on his doorstep, and his eyes grew rounder than I thought they could become.

"Atemu," I said weakly, trying to call his attention away from Greed. "Sorry, but I…kind of jumped out of a train and…busted your automail."

His eyes probed my face, as if searching for all the answers to the questions he undoubtedly had, and then they flicked down to take in the mangled mess of my legs, and he snorted. "Busted? That's an understatement." He held the door open wider to let us in. "Yugi's in the shop out back," he said as he led the way down the hall to the patient's room. "He's having to pull an all-nighter. I'll let him know you're here."

"I'm sorry about this, Atemu," I called as he started out the door. "I didn't mean to trouble you when I came home."

He paused long enough to give me a reassuring glance, and then he let his eyes drift over to Greed, who merely crossed his arms and glared back defiantly. "It's good to have you home again," he said at last, and then he left.

Greed continued to glare at the open doorway for all of three seconds before his face melted into its customary insane smirk. "Interesting hair."

"Why are you still here?" I asked.

"I'm considering whether or not to kill him. Just by seeing me, he knows too much."

My eyes widened, and something inside me tightened, threatening to snap. _If you dare hurt them, I'll kill you._

The expression on my face must have told him exactly what I was thinking, for his smirk dropped away as he glanced at me, and his face took on a dangerous look that usually meant pain for me. But before he could say or do anything, hurried footsteps ran down the hall outside, and Yugi burst into the room, wearing his greasy mechanic's uniform and a jubilant expression. "Ryou! Atemu told me you were—" He skidded to a stop, staring wide-eyed at the scene before him. "A…_Akira_!"

Time seemed frozen as the three of us stared at each other. Then Atemu appeared in the doorway behind Yugi, giving Greed the kind of intense stare that makes you feel like he can see into your very soul, and the Homunculus's face hardened into a scowl again. But instead of attacking them, which I had fully expected, he walked back over to me and leaned down to whisper in my ear.

"Remember what I have said, Ryou. I remember. Maybe if you make the Philosopher's Stone, if you make me human, you will succeed. Maybe you'll have your brother back." Without another word, he straightened and walked out, pushing Atemu out of the way and turning down the hall towards the front door.

The sound of the door opening and closing as he left was the only thing that broke the silence that descended upon us. I dropped my gaze to my lap as Atemu turned his scrutinizing stare on me, suddenly finding ruined automail far more interesting than the best friends that I hadn't seen in months.

"Ryou?" Yugi said at last, taking a couple steps towards me. "Was that…was he really…"

"No," I said before he could speak Akira's name again. "He's…no one. It's not important." I kept my head ducked and reached up to wipe away a tear that spilled down my cheek.

Atemu's disbelieving snort told me more than any words could, but he decided not to press. "You might want to run and get the doctor, Yugi," he said instead. "That head wound looks serious."

The younger brother nodded and reluctantly left, casting one last worried look over his shoulder as he went. Atemu made a point of closing the door behind him, and then he turned to face me.

"Okay, Ryou. A train came into the station with twenty hijackers aboard yesterday. The local garrison managed to catch all but one; one that the passengers say got pulled from the train by a State Alchemist. And they say the two who fell out looked exactly alike. Now, I don't care if it's top secret military business or a random fluke of Fate. I want to know what's going on."


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

I told Atemu everything that night, and to his credit he listened without interrupting. Yugi returned just as I finished, the town doctor following close behind. He skidded to a stop as soon as he entered the room and bit his lip. "Is…everything okay?" he asked.

The doctor shouldered past him before Atemu or I could answer. "Ryou!" she cried with a smile. "What a pleasant surprise. I didn't think I'd see _you_ back in Serra's Point. But you're hurt! What happened?"

I laughed lightly as she pushed aside my hair to examine my head wound. "Just a bump on the head and a few scratches," I replied. "Nothing major."

"Scratches?" she said, turning her attention to the blood on my back. "Shirt off. Now."

I complied, watching the Mutou brothers as she began to clean the glass cuts. Yugi was giving Atemu a questioning look, but Atemu was ignoring him, keeping his steady, unreadable gaze on me. He still hadn't said anything, and I began to worry that he, too, was angry at me. That he would turn me away just like my father.

"Look at me," the doctor ordered, coming around to face me and pulling my eyelids up with her thumbs. I looked at her obligingly, and she nodded in satisfaction. "You'll be just fine," she announced. "Though I recommend you take it easy for a couple of days. You have a light concussion."

"Don't worry, ma'am," Atemu said as he stood and stretched. "Ryou will be stuck in bed for a couple of days until we fix his automail. In the meantime, we'd better get some rest as well."

The doctor nodded and thanked him while I gave him a half-surprised, half-relieved look. He gave me a brief smile and motioned for the others to leave. "Rest easy, Ryou," he said as he followed them out. "We'll talk more in the morning."

He turned off the light and closed the door, leaving me alone in the darkness. I lay down with a quiet sigh and turned to face the wall. _Akira…is Greed right? Can I really bring him back with the Philosopher's Stone? More importantly, would I really sacrifice so many people just so one person could be brought back to life? Can I really do that?_

Akira's face filled my mind, and years of happy memories flooded through me. So many years to come…and the power to make more memories with him was within my grasp. _Oh, Akira. What should I do?_

I fell asleep without finding the answers.

* * *

I had lain awake, staring at the ceiling, for an hour before Yugi came in with a wheelchair. "Good morning, Ryou," he said in a falsely cheerful voice. "I figure we'll go ahead and get that mangled mess off today, and we'll start on your new automail after that. You'll have to use this thing to get around, though."

"Atemu told you what I told him last night, didn't he?" I asked.

Yugi blinked and stepped back. "H-how'd you know?"

"You're not that great an actor, Yugi." I gave him a sad smile. "So you can stop pretending to be happy."

"Are you really going to…to dig up Akira's grave?" he asked quietly as he came around to help me into the wheelchair.

I gave a small laugh. "I have to, if I want to stop Greed." _But I'm not sure any more…if I want to stop him…or help him…_

Yugi wheeled me into the small kitchen, where Atemu was already setting out eggs, bacon, and biscuits for breakfast. "Morning," I said to him. "Ah, how long do you think it'll take to fix me up?"

"With both of us working on it? Two days, tops," Atemu said as he sat down across from me. "I know you're in a hurry, and to be honest, I don't want to see that…well, I don't want him coming back here." His lip curled faintly in disgust.

I nodded, biting my own lip. _Atemu's right…I have to stop him. He's my sin; I must atone for it._ But the doubt persisted in my mind.

My mother came to see me soon after my automail surgery. I was still bedridden, riding out the pain that came with connecting nerve endings to new automail. Still, I was very happy to see her. "Mom!" I exclaimed, struggling to sit up as she came in. "I didn't know you were coming."

"Lie down, sweetheart," she said with a smile as she sat down on the bed beside me. "Atemu sent me a message saying you were in town. You don't think I'd miss a chance to see my son, do you?"

"I guess not," I answered.

She brushed a stray hair off my forehead. "Why are you back, Ryou?"

"Atemu didn't tell you?"

She shook her head. "He just said to talk to you about it."

I grimaced and turned my gaze to the wall. My reason for being back in Serra's Point was the last thing I wanted my mother to know. She didn't need to know about Greed, and she didn't need to know the only way I could stop him. "I…I came to visit his grave," I replied, settling on a half truth.

She frowned at me, but she didn't press, much to my relief. Instead, she spent the rest of the time talking about what had been happening in Serra's Point in the years I had been away, telling me about old friends and neighbors, who had died and who had new children, amusing circumstances and bad accidents. When she finally got up to leave an hour later, I felt a little better, but there was one last thing I needed to hear from her.

"Mom?"

"Hm?" She was halfway to the door, but she turned and came back to my bedside. "What is it, sweetheart?"

"If…if I could bring him back…_really_ bring him back this time…would you be happy?"

She frowned slightly, giving me a sad look. "Ryou, I gave you that answer two years ago. I don't want one son back if it means losing another."

"But it's different this time, Mom!" I said, sitting up. "I…I can do it; there's a way. It wouldn't hurt me at all, but…"

"But?" she prompted.

"But it's a terrible way. I…I wouldn't die, or even get hurt, but…so many others would suffer." I looked up at her, unable to stop a tear from slipping down my cheek. "So many nameless faces to me, but I'd be able to have my brother back! Mom, I…" I looked back down. "I don't know what to do."

She sat down beside me again, and with her hand she forced my chin up so that I had to look at her. "Ask yourself," she said quietly. "If you brought him back, what would he say to you? Would he be happy? Or would you have made him sad, that you placed him above the lives of others? Do you want him to regret being alive, Ryou?"

I shook my head, sniffling lightly and reaching up to wipe the tears away. She gave me a warm smile and kissed my forehead. "I trust you to do what's right, Ryou," she said, and she left.

* * *

By the time night had fallen, I was well enough to try out my new automail. The alloy the Mutous had used this time was a bit lighter, though it was just as durable, and the loss of the weight had me off-balance for a little while.

"You gonna be okay?" Yugi asked, sticking his head into the hall when he heard me fall for the fifth time.

"I'll be fine," I answered, hauling myself back to my feet. "This is a little hard to get used to, but I've almost got it."

Yugi nodded and returned to his room, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I planned to leave in the morning, so I had to get my business done tonight, but I didn't want either of the brothers tagging along. This was something I had to do myself.

I had the door open and was stepping out when Atemu's voice stopped me. "Going somewhere?" he asked as he walked around the corner of the house.

I cringed. "You know where I'm going," I replied, knowing it was useless to lie to him. "But you're not coming along, if that's your aim."

"I wouldn't want to," he said. "But don't you think Greed will be hanging around?"

"He'd be a fool to. His one weakness is buried in that graveyard."

Atemu nodded. "Of course. I wish you didn't have to go through this, Ryou. You're too good a person."

"Heh," I laughed. "No, I'm not. I brought all this on myself, Atemu; now it's time to correct it. I'll be leaving in the morning."

"Of course," he repeated. "I'll be waiting up for you to get back."

I nodded and started down the street without another word. The cemetery wasn't far, only a ten minute walk from the automail shop. If I hurried, I could be there and back within the hour.

Hurrying was almost impossible in a tourist town, though. The setting of the sun meant the beginning of the night life in Serra's Point, and the streets were packed with tourists looking for entertainment. I gritted my teeth and pushed through the crowds, wanting only to get what I had to do done and wishing that all these people would get out of my way.

_You want to get rid of them? There's an easy way._

I flinched as I pushed the words away. _I won't…I can't do that! Akira…he'd never forgive me. I've done too much to him already!_

Thankfully, the crowds thinned as I neared the edge of town, and by the time I reached the cemetery nobody was around. No one wanted to visit a graveyard, after all. With a sigh, I slipped through the gate and started up the hill to a place that was all too familiar.

Akira's grave was near the back, in a special section given to the victims of the train accident. The almost new tombstones seemed to glow under the moonlight, and I shuddered, trying to ignore the sensation that I was walking among ghosts.

"Hello, Akira," I said quietly as I knelt beside the most familiar one, resting a hand on its cool surface. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

The stone didn't talk back, of course, and I heaved a quiet sigh. "I'm sorry, brother. I've done so much to you already. Just…allow me this one last favor." With that, I clapped my hands together and placed them on the ground.

The light of the alchemic reaction lit up the night, and I was briefly blinded. The earth under my fingers shifted, and as my vision cleared, I saw it moving, pulling away from the grave to pile up on the ground around it. In its place was a neat rectangular hole, stretching down to the dark coffin. I hesitated, and then jumped in, wincing at the hollow thud as I landed on the coffin. It was a single lid kind, not made for viewing at the funeral. But that was understandable, since Akira had been crushed to death.

I clapped my hands together again, this time transmuting a hatch into the coffin's lid so I wouldn't have to take the time to open it. Taking a deep breath, I pulled open the hatch, shuddering violently at the sight beneath it.

Akira's whole body had a flattened look, and jagged edges of bone poked through the thin, half-decomposed skin in several places. The memory of the last look on his face, that look of terror as the train rolled on top of him, rose into my mind unbidden, and I began to shake as I reached forward to his folded hands.

"You deserved so much better," I whispered, breaking off a finger bone. "I miss you, brother."

After folding a handkerchief around the bone and tucking it into my vest pocket, I closed the hatch and retransmuted it into the coffin lid. Then I jumped out of the hole, grabbing the edge and pulling myself up the last couple of feet. Shaking dirt out of my hair, I retransmuted the ground to fill in the hole.

I rested my hand on the gravestone again, unwilling to go even after what I had done. "I miss you," I whispered again. "It's not fair…you shouldn't have died like that."

The sound of rustling grass reached my ears, and I whirled around, half-expecting Greed or Wrath to be sneaking up behind me. But it was neither.

It was my father.

I snorted lightly to myself as I turned my back on him, looking at Akira's grave again. He was the very last person I wanted to see, here most of all. But there was no avoiding it now; he had seen me as well.

"Ryou?" I tensed at the harshness in his tone. "Why are you here? You have no business in Serra's Point."

_Fine! You want to play the 'you're not my son' game? I can play it, too._ "That's Major Bakura," I replied coldly. "And I'm here on military business. But you don't need to know any more than that."

"And what military business involves visiting a gravesite?"

I felt my lips thin as I looked back at him. "I'd tell you, but it's top secret. Civilians don't need to know." With that, I touched the stone one last time and shouldered past him, trying hard to keep the tears from welling in my eyes as I left.

* * *

Once again, Yugi and Atemu came to the station to see me off in the morning. "Where are you planning to go now?" the elder asked as we stood on the platform, waiting for the boarding announcement.

"East City," I replied. "I know it's a long way, but it's where Colonel Elric last reported from. If I can join up with him, we'll have a better chance of stopping the Homunculi. I really don't feel like facing them alone."

"I don't blame you," Yugi said. "I'd hate to be in your shoes right now."

Atemu elbowed him, but I laughed. "Be glad of it," I told him. "But don't worry about me." I put a hand over my vest pocket. "I have a chance of winning now."

"Still, be careful," Atemu said. "And don't break my automail again!"

I laughed again, picking up my bag as the conductor called for boarding to begin. "I won't, and that's a promise. It hurts too much to break. But I will come back to visit when this is over!" With a little wave, I hopped into the train and found a seat close by the door.

"Bye, Ryou!" Yugi called to me through the open window. "We'll be waiting for you!"

I waved again as the final boarding whistle sounded, and then settled back in my seat, glancing down at my pocket. "Don't worry, guys," I murmured to myself. "I have help this time."

_This time, Greed will be the one to regret seeking me out._

* * *

What's this? I sense an ending to the story quite soon. Too bad; it's so much fun to write. But don't worry, there's still a few chapters left. Until the next one, enjoy and please leave a review! 


	16. Chapter 15

Now, I know everyone is asking, "What took you so long, Reez? You've never been this slow before." Well, school has started back, and the first couple weeks were spent getting everything together. And once that settled down, Katrina came in and turned my life upside down again. Stupid hurricane… Finally, there's the ever present excuse of writer's block. I'm having a bad case of it right now. That being said, try to enjoy this chapter that I struggled through. I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or FullMetal Alchemist.

Chapter 15

The train ride from Serra's Point to East City took about two days, and I stepped into the East City station feeling dirty, grumpy, and sick to death of all the danger and misfortune that one mistake had brought to me. In short, I was ready to find Ed, return to Central, and end this whole adventure once and for all.

Therefore, I was highly disappointed to learn from the local sheriff that Ed had left four days ago, not long after he sent the telegram to Fuhrer Mustang. The sheriff had no idea where he had gone, either.

"He left in a hurry, sir," was all he had to say. "I'm not even sure which train he took."

I blew out a long sigh. "Thanks," I told him, turning and stepping out of his office. Clouds hung thick in the dreary sky above, threatening bad weather as they had all day. Not that I cared how severe the storm would be; soon enough I'd be far away from here. Ed wasn't here, and I had no clue where he had gone.

With a sigh, I turned my steps to the train station. _When the trail is cold,_ I figured, _return to Central and start over._

The rain came pouring down before I was even halfway to the station. With a mild curse, I resisted the temptation to duck into a nearby doorway; there was nothing I could do about it. I didn't have a rain coat with me, and there was nothing else I could use as a cover. With a sigh, I resigned myself to getting soaked to the bone and continued to the station.

Few people were on the streets now, and those who had to brave the rain were rushing along the street, eager to reach their destinations and get out of the downpour. Only one figure I passed seemed to be in no hurry, a tall man with a hooded cloak. As we passed each other, I glanced up into his face. A pale face, with gleaming violet eyes and a sadistic grin.

_Wrath!_

I threw myself to the side as I spun around, and the backhand chop that he had thrown at me met only flying hair. He glared at me as I faced him, keeping in a defensive crouch as I watched his every move.

"The Head Alchemist's little pet," he sneered, his eyes boring holes into me. "How very nice to meet you here."

My first instinct was to back away, but he followed me, step by step, grinning all the while. "What do you want from me?" I asked as I gave up the back-away game and stood still. While intimidating, this Homunculus did not have the terrorizing effect on me that Greed's presence so often bestowed.

"Want from you?" Wrath snorted, his lips turning up in a humorless smile as he took another step forward. "Nothing in particular. On the other hand, though, you've been quite the distraction to my…partner. And I don't need to have him distracted."

"So what? You're going to kill me?"

"The thought crossed my mind, yes." Wrath lunged forward, his right leg sweeping around for a wicked kick, but I had anticipated his attack and jumped to my right, deftly avoiding the kick and countering with a backhand chop to his knee. The raven-haired man was far too quick, however, and my hand met nothing but empty air. "You'll have to do better than—" His eyes bulged suddenly.

While he had foolishly paused to talk, I had darted forward and planted a fist in his solar plexus. As I backed away, he doubled over, trying desperately to regain his breath. I didn't bother to stick around and follow it up, either. This was a fight I couldn't to win, so I did the most sensible thing I could.

I turned and ran for the train station.

The rain was still hammering down, and a flash of distant lightning accompanied it as I ducked into an alley, hoping that it was a shortcut to the station. The sooner I got there and onto the train, the better. I didn't want to face that madman again.

Wishes often prove to be in vain, however, and Wrath must have recovered quickly, for even as I turned onto the road that led to the station, he caught my shoulder and spun me into a hard punch to the face. Lights exploded in my head as his fist connected with my temple, and I wrenched away as I staggered back, trying to get away though I couldn't even tell where I was going.

Through the haze of pain that obscured my sense, I felt him coming after me, and in desperation I drew one of my concealed throwing daggers, slashing out blindly with it. The whistling dagger met nothing but empty air, and a hand grabbed my wrist before I could pull back. My vision had begun to clear by now, and Wrath's twisted, snarling face dominated the view as he began to drag me closer to him.

Instead of resisting, I reversed my grip on the dagger and stabbed downward. The Homunculus howled and released me as the sharp blade bit deep into his wrist. I wasted no time in turning, more than ready to resume my flight to the train station, but once again Wrath was too fast for me, and even as I took my first step, a solid blow slammed into the mall of my back, and I stumbled down into the mud of the street, dropping the dagger as more pain jolted through my body.

"You're going to pay for that," Wrath growled as I struggled to get up. My automail refused to respond correctly, though, and I vaguely wondered if my back was broken. A rough hand grabbed my hair near the front of my scalp and pulled me up to a kneeling position, and once again I was confronted with Wrath's leering face.

He held my dagger, and he held it close to my throat. Too close. Its blade glinted as drops of rain hit it, running down the flat and trickling along the edge to his fingers. _Oh, God, he's really going to kill me!_

"No more distractions," he murmured with an insane smirk. "Greed will be free now to follow my plans."

Somewhere close by, across the street perhaps, a woman screamed. As if to add to that high-pitched melody, a baby's wail rose in harmony. The symphony of my salvation.

Wrath dropped the dagger and let go of me as the chorus rose. "Shut up!" he yelled. "_Shut up! Make him shut up!_"

The woman screamed again as I reached down to pick up my fallen weapon and tuck it away. The movement was automatic, brought on by one of the lessons Ed had drilled into my brain: _don't let your weapons fall into enemy hands. And if they do, get them back._ Dimly, I was aware of Wrath moving away from me, towards the woman, and I clenched my fists, fully aware that he would kill her if he had the chance.

He had that chance if I didn't do anything.

I couldn't yet trust my legs to obey my brain, so instead of getting up to run after him I turned to the next best help option. Clapping my hands together, I sent a transmutation through the mud of the street, hardening the rain-softened earth and pulling it from the surrounding ground violently in the form of wickedly sharp spikes. Spikes that caught Wrath before he could reach the woman, caught him and impaled him with a sickening crunch of splintering bone.

Only then did I try to move. The automail squeaked in protest as I carefully climbed to my feet, eternally grateful that my back wasn't broken after all. It still hurt like the devil though, and I nearly fell as I turned to face the horrified woman.

"Run!" I called to her over her baby's screams. "Get out of here! _Now_!"

My shout startled her out of her frozen terror, and she whirled and fled, now calling for the police. I didn't plan to stick around to answer to the authorities, though; Wrath may be dead, but I had been dealing with Homunculi long enough to know he wouldn't stay dead, and I certainly didn't plan to be around when he woke up.

So I started once again for the train station, hoping fervently that I would make it before the next train left.

I didn't have the time to wait for the next one.

* * *

"I thought I told you to stay in Serra's Point," Mustang said, one eye twitching ever so slightly as he glared at me.

I returned the look with a blank stare of my own. "You told me to go to Serra's Point," I answered. "You didn't tell me to stay there."

The Fuhrer couldn't say anything to that; he was caught in a logic trap. The twitch in his eye grew more pronounced. "I assumed you would be smart and stay there until the danger is past," he said smoothly.

"The danger followed me there. Didn't you get the hijack report? Greed was on that train."

Another logic trap. Mustang opened and closed his mouth several times before he decided on something to say. "Did you get what you had to from Serra's Point?" he asked at last, settling back in his chair and crossing his arms.

"Yes, sir," I said with a nod. "I then went to East City to find Colonel Elric, but he had already left. So I came back here to find out if he's sent any further reports."

"As a matter of fact, he's returned to Central at last." Mustang made a face. "It's about time, too. He stayed a little _too_ long in East City."

"So I can find him in his office?"

"He does have a lot of paperwork to catch up on, yes." The Fuhrer waved in the direction of the door. "You should be reporting to him and not me anyways."

"Thank you, sir," I said with a salute, and then I left his office and headed for Ed's. True to Mustang's word, the Head of State Alchemy was sitting at his desk, buried in a pile of papers that had been accumulating during his extended absence.

"Geez, I go away from Central for a month or two, and all this work piles up," he complained as I poked my head in. "What's that stupid Mustang been doing all this time, anyways?"

"Well, everyone knows he likes to neglect his own work," I pointed out. "So maybe he passed some on to you."

Ed yelped and jumped when I spoke, accidentally knocking over a stack of papers and scattering them on the floor. "Dammit, Major, can't you knock?" he growled as he came around the desk to pick the papers up.

"The door was open, sir," I answered. "Besides, I was curious as to why you were babbling to yourself. Work got you down?"

Ed straightened up and dumped the papers back on his desk. "I hate desk jobs," he huffed. "This is why I didn't want to be the Head of State Alchemy in the first place. But no, Mustang _had_ to insist on it. Musta been his newest torture idea for me." He sighed slumped down in his chair again. "So you have…what you need?"

"Yes, sir," I said, touching my vest pocket without really realizing it.

"Good. Anything else to report?"

"Ah, yes." I shuffled my feet uncomfortably. "After, ah, leaving Serra's Point, I took the train to East City, hoping to find you. There I ran into Wrath."

Ed dropped his pen. "You _what_?" he gasped. "But…but Wrath had…"

"Moved to Central?" I shrugged. "Either he went back, or it was only Greed who went."

"Oh, _dammit_," he snarled. "And you met him there? How'd you survive?"

"I'm not quite sure myself." I frowned at the memory. "He...there was a woman nearby, holding a baby. They both started screaming, and he ran at them, yelling at them to shut up. I was able to…kill him and get away. But I don't understand—"

"You wouldn't," Ed interrupted with a weary-sounding sigh. "Wrath _does_ have a weakness, though it doesn't mean much. He hates it when a baby cries."

"He…what?" I stared at him blankly.

"Look, I told you how Wrath was made, right? By a woman who had lost her child to miscarriage."

"Yes," I said with a nod. "She used the body in the transmutation."

"That's right." Ed leaned back with another sigh. "This is kind of hard to explain, but…Homunculi carry imprints of who they were supposed to be. Like Sloth. My brother and I created her out of love for our mother. We wanted our mother back. As a result, Sloth often used a motherly tone when she talked to people. What little feelings she possessed seemed to be a mother's feelings. You see what I mean?"

"So…" I said slowly as I attempted to put the pieces together. "Wrath…because a mother pining for her lost child made him…would make him think like a child wanting his mother?"

"Something like that. Except that even that got screwed up for him. See, right after he was transmuted, Sensei—Izumi, I mean—put him back beyond the Gate. It was there that he grew up, until I accidentally released him years later. Now he hates to hear a child cry; if I had to guess at why, I'd guess that it was because he was abandoned."

"Wow," I muttered as I digested this new piece of information. "He…Izumi…put him beyond the Gate? Why?"

Ed shrugged. "Couldn't stand the sight of the monster she had created, I guess. Or the thought of the sin she had committed against her child."

"I can understand that." I frowned as I thought about his words. "Wait…so, the alchemist put him on the other side of the Gate? How did he get back?"

"Like I said, I let him out," the Colonel explained with an air of strained patience. "When I opened the Gate. He took my arm and leg, and he escaped into our world."

I chose to ignore the curious reference to his lost limbs. "So…could we possibly send him back to the other side?"

"It's a thought," he said, leaning forward again and riffling idly through a stack of documents. "But I doubt he'll go willingly."

"I'm guessing you've thought of this before?" At his confirming nod, I continued, "So why haven't you tried it? You've had plenty of time to think up a plan."

"Because Wrath hasn't been _bothering_ me that much these past fifteen years. I had thought that the deaths of the other Homunculi and the person who was controlling them had calmed his murderous tendencies a bit. But I suppose now that he has Greed to back him up, he's gotten bolder."

I grimaced. "Sorry."

"It's not your fault, Major. There's no way you could have known what trying human transmutation would bring." Ed put down his pen and rubbed both hands over his face. "Well…this is your idea now. What do you propose we do?"

"Is there any way to open the Gate without trying human transmutation?"

"There is," he confirmed. "But I'm not sure I want to use it."

"It can't be as bad as human transmutation," I said with a frown.

"Define bad." Ed picked up the pen again and started tapping its point against his desk. "All of have a small Gate within us, but we can't easily access it. Children, however, are a different story. The younger one is, the closer one is to that internal Gate."

"You're saying..." I began around the lump in my throat, "that if we really do this…we'll have to use a child?"

"A baby," Ed corrected gravely.

"And…will it hurt the baby?"

"Not to my knowledge, no." Ed threw his pen down again. "But you see why I don't like the idea."

"Yes, sir," I said. "But it seems to be the only one we have."

The Colonel sat back and gave me a long, searching stare. "It sure does," he said at last. "Why don't you take a trip to the infirmary? You look a little beat up."

"Thanks for noticing," I answered dryly. "But it's only a couple of bruises. I'll be fine."

"All the same, you should go home and rest," Ed insisted. "I'll think about what to do about Wrath. Report back to me tomorrow at eight o'clock, Major, and be sure to get cleaned up before then."

"Yes, sir," I said, standing up and saluting.

He flapped his hand vaguely at the door. "Out."


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"Wake up!" Malik hissed three days later, whacking at my head with a pillow. "I swear, you can be incredibly lazy when you're not off fighting bad guys."

"Leave me alone," I grumbled, pulling my pillow over my head. I had been having a rather nice dream, and I didn't appreciate the blonde's interruption.

Malik wasn't one to be deterred, however, and he yanked my pillow away and hit me with his own. "Nope, sorry. His Royal Shortness is downstairs; he says he's gotta talk to you."

I rolled over and opened one eye, rubbing the sleep away so I could peer out the window. "This early? The sun's not even up yet. Couldn't he have just sent a message or something? And what're _you_ doing up this early?"

"I've gotta take the morning train down to Youswell, remember? There's a dig near the coal mines. And as for Ed coming here in person, I couldn't tell you why. I know nothing about his super-important 'Official Military Business,' but I'd guess it has something to do with the Homunculi." Malik kicked the bed. "So up and at 'em."

"Fine, fine," I grumbled, sitting up reluctantly and pushing the covers away. "I'm up now."

"If you're not downstairs in ten minutes, I'm coming back up and dragging you down by the ankles," the blond threatened over his shoulder as he walked out.

"Right, right," I mumbled to myself as I reached for my nearby robe and flung it around my shoulders. _Stupid Colonel. Couldn't he wait at least until daylight?_

Malik was waiting at the bottom of the staircase as I shuffled down, still half-asleep. "Good thing," he said as I walked past him and turned towards the sitting room. "You're too heavy to drag anywhere at five o'clock in the morning."

"Shut up, Malik." I tightened my robe a little and saluted as I entered the sitting room.

Ed was sitting in the chair closest to the fireplace, and the fire crackling within it cast strange, dancing shadows across his face. "Major," he said, saluting in turn. "You're out of uniform."

"As is usual at this time in the morning," I answered pointedly as I took the seat across from him.

"Yeah, I apologize for waking you up, but it's urgent." Ed paused and scowled in the door's direction. "Don't you have a train to catch?"

"Before I say good-bye?" asked Malik's too-innocent voice as he poked his head into the opening.

"Then say good-bye and stop eavesdropping!" the Colonel snapped. "This is classified information."

"I'll see you later, Malik," I told him with a nod, hoping he'd catch my real meaning. _I'll tell you about it later, okay?_

He made a face, but his answering nod told me that he understood. "See ya," he said with a small wave as he disappeared from the doorway. A few seconds later, the sound of the main entrance opening and closing reached our ears.

Ed got up and walked over to check that he was gone anyways. "You haven't been telling him everything that's happened, have you?" he asked me, a suspicious look on his face as he walked back to his chair.

"N-no, sir," I answered. "Not everything. But he was there the first time I saw Greed, and I told him a little about what happened back then. Nothing important, though." I pulled my chair a little closer to the fire. "So what's happened now?"

"Well, I would tell you, but it's probably best to show you." Ed stared at me, his face unreadable through the firelight shadows that danced across it. "You'd better get dressed, Major; we have a little trip to take."

* * *

Half an hour later, the official military vehicle pulled up in front of a downtown grocery store, which was already surrounded by a dozen or more police and military cars. Two soldiers stood on either side of the door, and its large display window had been busted. As I pushed open the door and climbed out of the car, an uneasy feeling began to creep into my stomach. "What happened here?" I asked as Ed came around the car and joined me.

"Robbery," the Colonel replied as we walked together to the door. "Sometime last night. A passing citizen saw the mess and reported it just a couple hours ago." He stopped and nodded at the open door. "You might be interested in what we found inside."

I frowned at him and then stared into the store, my apprehension growing with every second. The soft glow of lamps broke through the shadows within, and the sound of voices drifted out to me, indicating that the scene's investigation was still ongoing. Taking a deep breath, I stepped through the door.

The scene within was one of utmost upheaval. Most of the shelves and stands had been knocked over, spilling their contents across the floor. Fruit squished and glass crunched under foot as I picked my way among the wreckage to the back of the store, towards the lampglow and the voices.

A door stood open at the back, leading to the stockroom, and it was in front of it that two sleepy-looking investigators stood, comparing their notes on the scene. One looked up as I approached. "What're _you_ doing here, kid?" he demanded. "How did you get past the guards?"

"They let me through," I answered with a sigh as I pulled my silver watch out of my pocket.

The men's eyes widened at the sight, and both instantly straightened and attempted to appear more polite. "Forgive me, sir," the first said. "I didn't know who you were. Ah, if you're here to examine the circle, it's on the wall to the right in the stock room." He gestured at the open door. "The body has already been taken away."

_Body?_ I turned to look at Ed, who had followed me in, but he only nodded towards the stock room. So I took a deep breath, grabbed one of the investigators' lamps, and stepped into the room.

The stock room was in similar disarray as the store front, with one very noticeable difference: instead of food and glass, the floor was strewn with food and blood. The smell of it filled the small room, sharp spices competing with metallic blood-scent in the thick, stifling air. I put my free hand over my mouth and nose and tried hard not to throw up.

"Over here," Ed said, gesturing to the right. Following his lead, I carried the lamp over to the wall. The shelves and boxes that had once lined it had been torn away and thrown aside, and once again I had to pick my away through the debris. When I got close enough for the meager lamp light to reveal the wall, I gasped, the apprehension in my stomach hardening into ice-cold dread.

Written on the wall in dark red-brown smears that could only be blood was a transmutation circle. Not just any circle, either… "It's the same," I whispered, reaching out but stopping just short of touching it. "It's the same as the one in Lior. The one he used to pattern the robberies there." I looked back at Ed. "Greed did this."

"That's most likely the case, yes," he replied. "Not many would know what the Ouroboros circle looks like."

"Ouroboros?"

He nodded. "That's the Ouroboros circle. It's used to make the Philosopher's Stone, but only those who've seen beyond the Gate know of it. Them and the Homunculi."

"Well, that certainly narrows down the field of suspects," I said dryly. Not that that mattered much; I already knew it was Greed. He was sending me a message. But what?

"Strange that he would bust out the window, though, instead of simply walking through the door. Perhaps he wanted to make sure someone would see the mess before the daily crowd began to show up."

"That or he just felt like robbing this place the hard way," I interjected. "There's no telling what he thinks."

"Uh, right. Anyways, the cash drawer was emptied, and the store manager was stabbed to death back here, and you can see. He was probably doing inventory."

Ed continued to talk, but I tuned him out. I didn't need to know the useless specifics of the investigation; all I needed to know was on the wall in front of me. Bending closer, I studied the circle with a frown. It was imperfect to be sure; the lines were too thick in some spots and too thin in others, and in several places drops of blood had run down the wall, further marring the image. Yet there was something else as well, a jagged line that cut through the right side of the circle. A line that looked strangely familiar.

"Colonel?"

"Eh?" Ed blinked, looking slightly perturbed at being interrupted. "What is it?"

"This," I answered, pointing out the line. "It's not supposed to be there."

He walked over to join me. "You're right," he said as he stared at it. "It's not. Strange, it looks almost like the railway path between Central and East City."

Several things clicked in my mind at his words. _The Ouroboros circle…East City…he's still waiting for me. He still wants me to make him human. And he's getting impatient._

"Colonel," I said, turning to face him. "When is the next available time that I can go to East City?"

"Later this morning," Ed replied, and I looked at him in surprise. "I've already received permission from the Fuhrer," he continued as he beckoned me out of the stock room. "I guessed after you came back reporting that Wrath was there that I was wrong about them moving their base to Central; it was just Greed who came. At any rate, we've got tickets for the eight o'clock train."

I followed him back through the store and to vehicle waiting for us outside. "That's sudden. What happened to that plan you were supposed to come up with?"

"Looks like we'll have to improvise," he returned dryly, walking around the car and opening its door. "Thankfully, my brother has good timing." He climbed in.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I also got in and closed the door.

Ed sighed wearily. "Take us back to the Ishtar residence," he told the driver, and he turned back to me as the car started moving. "He came to town last night," he explained. "The Walkers, a couple back in Rizenbul, were recently killed in a farming accident, and Al brought their baby to Central City to give to an adoption agency."

"…Oh." I didn't have to ask what that meant. I didn't even want to think about it. Yet we had no other options; too many innocent, uninvolved people had died in this strange war, and that child was our only hope of ending it. I could only pray that it didn't get hurt.

* * *

The next few hours passed by in a blur; I returned home to get a couple more hours of sleep and to pack a few things for the day-and-a-half train ride, and Ed went off to do whatever Colonels do before big missions.

We met again at the train station at 7:45 and lingered on the platform a while before boarding the train, which sat puffing merrily on its track nearby. Fuhrer Mustang was there to see us off, and Alphonse as well. The kind-faced man still held the year-old child, seemingly reluctant to let it go.

"I don't feel right about doing this, Nii-san," he complained to the Colonel. "Are you sure he won't get hurt?"

Ed shifted uncomfortably. "I can't promise that, and you know it, Al. But this is our only option if we want to get rid of Wrath. And right now we don't have a choice about that; he and Greed have killed too many people."

Al bit his lip, but he didn't protest further as he handed the child to his brother. "Take care of him. And don't forget to feed him, Nii-san."

"I'm not gonna forget to feed him!" Ed snapped indignantly, drawing chuckles from the rest of us.

The final boarding call from the conductor sounded behind, and Mustang nodded towards the train. "You'd better go before it leaves without you," he said. "I'll be expecting your report on my desk within a week."

"You'll get your report, Fuhrer, don't worry about it," Ed replied with a dismissive wave as he turned and boarded the train. I saluted and followed him.

"Good luck!" Al called to us through the open window as we seated ourselves in the carriage. "I'll still be here when you get back, brother, so I'll see you then!"

"Yeah!" Ed agreed as the whistle blew and the train began moving with a jolt. "We can all go out for dinner then! And Mustang can pay!"

"Or not!" Mustang retorted. "Take care of your subordinate, Colonel."

"I'll be fine, Fuhrer!" I replied, hanging half out the window to wave one last time. The train was speeding up, though, and Fuhrer Mustang and Al disappeared quickly as the platform was left behind. With a sigh, I pulled myself back into the carriage and sat down. "You think we really will be fine, sir?" I asked. "Will this really work?"

"It should," Ed said. "It's too late to second-guess ourselves anyways. Better settle down, Major; we've got a few long days ahead of us."

* * *

I saw him when we got off the train at the East City station the next evening. He was standing near the door to the station building, and when I stepped off the train he smirked, raised a hand as if in greeting, and disappeared into the building. Behind me, Ed hopped out of the carriage with the baby, whom we had taken to calling Joshua, in tow.

"Something the matter, Major?" he asked as he looked at me.

"I-it's nothing, sir," I replied as my hand drifted automatically to my pocket. "I'm just a little nervous." I should have expected Greed to be here, after all; he had sent that message to me, and he wanted to be sure that I came. Now he knew I was here, and he would make his move soon.

That was okay. I had a little surprise for him this time.

"Try not to worry too much, Major," Ed said as he brushed past and headed towards the street exit. "We'll pull through; we've got a couple of aces of our sleeves, after all."

"R-right." I followed him out.

The sun was setting, so we went straight to our hotel for the night. Both of us were worn out from the long trip, and Joshua was already asleep. The night passed uneventfully, and when the sun rose again I was the first to awaken.

I stayed in bed for a while, staring at the ceiling and listening to the Colonel's snores from across the room. He had yet to tell me exactly where the Homunculi had been hiding, but that didn't matter much. Greed already knew we were here, which meant that Wrath probably knew as well. More than likely, they would find us long before we found them.

With a sigh, I surmised that Ed probably wasn't going to wake up any time soon, and I crawled out of bed and pulled my pants on, deciding to get the day started without him. He'd probably appreciate a little impromptu room service anyways.

Joshua cooed as I was pulling on my vest and jacket, and I went over to his makeshift crib in the corner. "Good morning," I told him with a sad smile, rubbing his head with one hand. "I hope you're feeling well today."

The baby laughed in response, and I sighed. "Me too, though I doubt I will be for long. I'll be back soon." I slipped out the door and walked through the hotel to the street outside.

The city was just coming to life with the new day, people crowding the sidewalks and cars slowing passing by on the streets as everyone made their way to work. Vendors hawked their wares to passersby, and many shops had their doors wide open, signaling that they were open. I smiled as I spotted one particular shop with an open door; I had noticed in passing last evening that it sold cream puffs, and I was eager to buy a few for breakfast.

The shopkeeper called a jovial greeting as I entered, and I nodded my head in response as I wandered over to the pastry display. A couple of cream puffs for myself, maybe a steamed bun or two for the Colonel…

Someone bumped into me from behind, and before I could turn around to admonish the person, an arm slung itself around my shoulders, and something sharp poked into my ribs. "Yo, brother," a voice said in my ear. "You got my message, I see. It's about time you came to town."

I froze, ice trickling down my spine. _He shouldn't be able to get this close…should he?_ My hand slapped at the pocket that had contained that package, only to find it gone. Terror overwhelmed me at this realization. _It must have fallen out at the hotel. Oh God, what do I do now?_

"Come on, Ryou, surely by now you've gotten used to me," Greed continued, oblivious to the reason for my panic. "Don't you have something to say to me? A simple hello, perhaps?"

"Let me go!" I hissed in response.

"So sorry, but I can't do that." I could hear the smirk in his voice. "We're going to take a little walk, you and I." He turned around, forcing me to turn with him by keeping his arm around my shoulder, and walked out the shop door, dragging me along beside him. He turned left and continued down the street, and as we neared the hotel, I glanced up, praying that Ed had woken up by now.

He had. My heart soared with hope as I saw him in our room's window, seeming mildly annoyed as he stared down at the street. _Please see me_, I prayed as Greed led me onward. _Please, please, look at me._

Apparently, two people with white hair weren't hard to miss, for our eyes connected within seconds, and he bent forward suddenly, pressing both palms against the glass. His expression was hard to read from that distance, but I could see his hand clearly as he dropped it and patted his pocket. I shook my head fractionally. _No, I don't have it. It has fallen out; it's in the room. Please, please find it!_

I could only hope he understood what that shake of my head meant, for the knife Greed held poked through my clothes, biting painfully into my side. "You stop communicating with him," he snarled in my ear. "Or you're gonna end up with a punctured lung, and that wouldn't be good for you, now would it?"

"You wouldn't dare," I snapped back. "Not here, with all these people around."

The knife dug a little deeper, and I couldn't help but wince. "Don't presume to know what I would and wouldn't dare," he said. "You've tried my patience long enough; I have half a mind to go ahead and kill you."

I wasn't about to argue with a threat like that, so I kept my mouth shut from that point on as Greed continued to walk me through the streets of East City. I had only been to the city once before, when I had come a few days ago searching for Ed, so I had no clue where he might be leading me, but I got the sense that we were heading into the heart of the city, where the major businesses and the local military headquarters were located.

"Almost there now, brother," Greed said gleefully as he steered me towards a derelict building. It was condemned, surrounded by a fence to keep people away. A sign on the gate noted that it was scheduled for demolition in a couple of weeks.

"I'm not your brother!" I snapped as Greed pushed aside a few boards to reveal a hole in the fence and pulled me through.

"Oh, but you soon will be, eh?" He grinned at me, a sadistic expression that sent a shudder coursing through me. "Come on," he said, grabbing my arm and keeping the dagger against my side as he led me into the building.

The door he led me through opened into a stairwell. On the left hand, it led up to the second floor; on the right, it led down into the basement. Greed took the right, dragging me into the darkness as he snickered insanely. "Soon, soon," he crowed as he jerked me through the door at the bottom. "You'll be able to make the Philosopher's Stone, and I can become human!"

"N-no," I whispered as I took in the large, almost empty basement. Steel and wood girders were scattered across the room, supporting the building above. In the farthest corner, barely visible in the dim light provided by a few overhead electric lamps, were some boxes, a few chairs, and a couple of beds. So this was where the Homunculi had been hiding.

"What did you say?" Greed asked, whirling to face me and losing the jubilant ring in his voice.

"I said no," I answered, my voice growing stronger with every word. So he might kill me; so what? Better that than risk the lives of the people who walked the streets above us in a near-hopeless effort to make the Philosopher's Stone. "I'm not making the Stone."

"Oh, come now, Ryou," he sneered, stepping closer. "Use a little sense, why don't you? You want your brother back, right?"

"I…I do," I admitted, dropping my gaze to the floor. "But…but he's dead. He's not coming back, no matter what I do." I raised my head again, looking him squarely in the eye. "You could never be my brother, Greed. Akira would never kill anyone, not the way you did. And even if I could bring him back, he would only be sad that I sacrificed so many for his sake. I won't do that to him, I won't!"

Greed's face was a study in growing rage as I said this, but before he could do anything, a new voice cut in from behind me.

"Very, very good, Godplayer," Wrath said, clapping as I whirled around in shock. "A nice speech indeed. You see, Greed? These humans, they don't think the way you'd expect them to. Better just to do away with them so they don't cause trouble." He walked forward, grin widening as he raised a gun and pointed it at me.

"No!" Greed snarled. "He's mine to kill!"

I whirled back around in a panic, only to find Greed already charging at me with his blood-tipped knife.

* * *

Hee, I wasn't _too_ late this time. The final showdown has begun; stay tuned for the next update! I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or FullMetal Alchemist. 


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I jumped back as he slashed at me, the knife clipping a few strands of hair where it would have sliced through my throat. Greed snarled and came at me again, but this time I was better prepared, and as he struck out again with the knife, I dropped into a crouch, kicking at his ankles with my left foot. He was quick enough to jump over the kick, but he couldn't avoid the blast of pressurized air I transmuted at him.

He cried out as he flew backward, hitting one of the metal girders with a resounding clang, but I paid no attention. I couldn't hope to win this fight; even if I killed Greed, he would resurrect only a few minutes later. And neither could I hope to get by Wrath and escape in those precious few minutes. All I could do what hold the Homunculi off as long as I could and pray Ed found me in time.

I was already moving as Greed hit the girder, running to the side and pulling another transmutation as I went. My vision clouded over and then faded to black as the invisibility transmutation took effect, and I silently moved forward another couple of steps until my outstretched fingers brushed against the wall. Then I settled against it and waited, listening to Greed as he groaned and pushed himself to his feet. He couldn't see me, but I couldn't see him either, so my advantage was a slim one at best.

"Where is he?" he snarled. Wrath didn't give a verbal answer, but I guessed that he pointed or something, for after a pause I could hear Greed's footsteps coming in my general direction. "Where are you?" he called softly. "There's nowhere to hide in here, Ryou." He was coming close…too close.

I held my breath as he passed right by me, the stirred air brushing against my face.

"_Dammit_!" he yelled a few seconds later. "Where could he have gone?"

"I saw him disappear in that direction," Wrath answered in an annoyed sounding voice. "There's nowhere for him to go; he _has_ to be over there."

"Disappear?" In the space of one word, Greed's voice went from disbelieving to curiously playful. "Disappear, eh? I wonder…how far do the limits of illusory alchemy reach?"

Something hit the wall close by me with a loud clang, and I winced, nearly losing the concentration I needed to keep up the transmutation. What was he up to now?

"I bet a knife can still stick someone who can't be seen," Greed said with another accompanying clatter against the wall, this time farther away. My blood ran cold as I realized what he was doing—tossing knives at random on the chance that one would hit me. "I wonder if the knife would disappear as well," he continued gleefully. "How convenient it would be! No one would ever find an invisible corpse."

Another knife struck the wall mere inches from my head, and I dropped the transmutation in shock. Greed was standing not ten feet away, and he grinned as he saw me reappear. "Sorry, did I startle you?"

In response I bent down, grabbed the knife, and tossed back at him. It was a clumsy throw, and he dodged it easily, but it gave me the split second I needed to run towards the back of the room, putting some distance between us so I'd have a little more time to think up a plan. I didn't even know if Ed knew exactly where this hideout was, but I couldn't take the chance of trying to escape. He'd probably never find me if I did; the city was far too big.

Briefly I considered putting up a barrier, blockading myself from the Homunculi, but then I remembered Greed's ability to walk through walls. _Damn it,_ I thought as I turned to meet Greed's furious charge. _What do I do? What _can_ I do? Colonel, please hurry up and find me!_

The Homunculus had his knife again, and I had to move quickly to dodge it. "Would you stay still and let me kill you?" he snarled. "I have the right!"

"You don't have the right to play with life any more than I do!" I retorted, clapping my hands together. Greed was too close to avoid the blast of wind I transmuted, but this time he phased through a metal girder instead of hitting it, landing safely on his feet on the other side.

"That trick's getting old," he growled, but I paid no attention to him. I had a better idea; I didn't have to fight Greed, and I could probably deal with Wrath as well. Even as the former was talking, I was preparing another transmutation. Bending down, I clapped my hands and placed them on the floor, watching as a transmutation circle sprang into view, spreading out from the point I had touched.

He was coming back quickly, and I didn't have time to finish before I had to dodge his knife. That was okay, though; I could easily expand the circle from any other point.

If I could reach any other point. Greed jumped in front of me and aimed a kick at my knee, forcing me back and away from the circle.

"Planning to bind me again?" he hissed. "That's not going to work!" He slashed again, and I had to back away again, closer to Wrath and the only exit and away from the circle. "You can't get away from me, Ryou!"

"I don't plan to," I snapped, clapping my hands together and bringing a row of spikes out of the floor.

Greed instinctively jumped out of their way, and I used his distraction to run past him to the circle. I clapped my hands and touched its edge, barely managing to complete it before I had to whirl out of the way of Greed's overhead chop. One down.

Sneaking a glance up as I blocked Greed's furious barrage of attacks, I saw that there were too many pipes and girders poking through it. Not ideal for a circle. Well, that was okay, too. I could easily use the walls.

With that in mind, I jumped back towards the far wall as Greed struck at me, causing him to overbalance. Twisting around, I transmuted a second binding circle on the walls and skittered out of the way as the knife clanged against it.

"_Damn_ you!" Greed yelled, but I ignored him as I ran to the next wall, transmuting another circle there. I turned to find him standing between me and the last wall, and cursed silently. I couldn't transmute any more spikes from the floor and risk marring the circle, and he would be prepared for the wind trick. I also noticed that he had retrieved his knife.

"Think you're smart, don't you?" he said with a grin.

Instead of replying, I simply feinted a punch at his solar plexus, and as he countered with the knife, I chopped at his wrist with the edge of my left hand. He gasped in pain and dropped the knife, and I kicked it away. Dodging away from his enraged kick, I aimed for his solar plexus again, this time going through with the blow.

He doubled over, gasping for air, and I ran past him to the last wall, clapping my hands together as I went. A second later, the last circle spread across its surface. Turning around, I saw that Greed was still doubled over, gasping for air, right in the middle of the floor's circle. _Perfect,_ I thought, bending down to touch the circle.

It activated, glowing a blood-red light that in turn activated the three circles on the walls, and Greed froze, caught in their binding light. I backed away with a relieved sigh and turned to head back to the entrance.

Wrath was already walking towards me, hands in the pockets of his coat like he wasn't worried at all about me. "Smart boy," he commented. "Perhaps too smart for your own good. Don't expect to catch me in a binding trap, Illusory. I've been around too long to fall for that."

I was barely listening to what he said; I wasn't even looking at him. My eyes had drifted past him to the door—and the figure that stood there.

Ed was here. Ed had found me.

Even as I looked at him, he shifted Joshua to one arm, and with the other he threw something to me. Wrath stopped and narrowed his eyes as the packet sailed past his head, but I paid no attention to whatever he did next, instead focusing on the package. After taking just a second to make sure Akira's bone was still inside, I turned and threw it at Greed.

His face morphed into a look of pure terror as the packet hit his shoulder and fell to the ground at his feet. Then, slowly, his red gaze still locked on the little brown parcel, he sank to his knees and doubled over, heaving up the bright red stones.

I grimaced and turned away from the sickening sight to see that Wrath had gone after Ed. The Colonel, hampered as he was by Joshua, was having a hard time fending off the angry Homunculus. Even as I watched, Wrath grabbed his right arm—his automail arm—and twisted it, the metal screeching as it bent and broke under the pressure.

Ed shrieked aloud as the synapse rebound shot through his shoulder, and Joshua began to wail as well. Wrath backed up in a hurry, clapping his hands over his ears. "Shut up!" he yelled. "Make him shut up!"

"Colonel!" I yelled, running around Wrath and sliding down next to Ed. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he growled, working hard to keep the obvious pain off his face. "This is our chance, Ryou; don't blow it." With his good hand, he reached down and pulled back Joshua's blankets, revealing a circle drawn on the baby's stomach in blood. "Go get him," he whispered, and activated the circle.

Something about the atmosphere in the room changed in that instant. Nothing about the transmutation itself seemed special, but suddenly there was an air of _wrongness_. Something wasn't right; something wasn't natural. I didn't have to look around to know that the Gate was there. Or that it was opening.

"_Go_," Ed hissed urgently, and I winced slightly before turning to face Wrath. I was sure he would furious, ready to attack us, or still cringing away from the baby. Yet he wasn't even facing us; instead he was staring at the Gate. I couldn't see his face, but I didn't need to. I was sure it held a look of utmost terror.

The Gate…it was there, where the wall should have been. Its doors, which would show a relief of a giant eye when closed, were now cracked open, a crack that was growing steadily wider. Beyond that was darkness. Not empty darkness though, not at all. Hungry eyes stared out at us from that darkness, though the rest of the creatures' bodies were invisible. I shuddered involuntarily at the sight. Those creatures…those demons…I had called them forth that night when I tried to resurrect my brother. They came through the Gate into the living world.

They took my leg.

"_Ryou_!" Ed yelled, once again snapping me out of it.

"Right, Wrath," I murmured to myself. Running forward, I shoved the Homunculus in the back.

He wasn't going through so easily. "No!" he shrieked. "No, I don't want to go back there! Stop it!"

"You don't have a choice," I told him, though I was sure he didn't hear me. He was too fixated on the Gate. But that fixation kept him from struggling very hard against me, and slowly I was able to push him closer to that awful darkness.

"_Ryou! Look out!_"

I heard the Colonel's shout, and I heard the footsteps coming up fast behind me, but all I could do—all I had time to do—was turn around. As I did, I felt a sharp, painless blow in my back.

Greed was there, leering inches from my face. "Shouldn't have looked away from me," he hissed. "Now you pay the price. No one's going beyond that Gate but _you_." He grabbed me by the collar and pulled me around Wrath to the Gate.

I tried to resist, to pull away from him, but I felt curiously weak. It was getting harder to breathe, and pain was beginning to throb deep in my back, where something had hit me. As Greed dragged me up to the Gate, I reached around with my free arm to that spot on me back. My questing fingers found wetness, and a hard object, cold stone, embedded there.

The knife. Greed had stabbed me.

My legs still worked—weakness didn't affect automail—but I couldn't seem to be able to keep them under me, and Greed almost had to drag me the last few feet.

"Don't stop!" I heard Ed call behind me.

Don't stop? I was right at the edge, mere inches from the pitch black beyond the Gate. I didn't want to go in there! Please…please, help me. Colonel…anyone…

"Keep pushing through!" he continued. "Get to the other side. Don't stop, or they'll get you!"

Greed's insane laughter drowned out any more words he might have said as he pushed me forward one last time, right into the waiting hands of the monsters who lived beyond the Gate.

* * *

I apologize for the shortness, but I couldn't resist the cliffhanger. The next chapter will be out shortly. 


	19. Chapter 18

This chapter will probably be confusing, especially to those who haven't seen the end of FullMetal Alchemist. Yes, it _is_ part of the show. Well, except for the Shadow Realm stuff, but hey. It fits. Also, this isn't the last chapter; there will be one more. Please try not to kill me before I post it. That being said, please review.

* * *

Chapter 18

Darkness…

Pitch black that sucked away any light.

I would have called it nothingness but for the creatures that surrounded me. I still couldn't see them, but I could feel them reaching for me, brushing against me, grabbing my arms and legs and head and body. I could feel their hunger. They wanted to make me one of them.

This wasn't nothingness. This was chaos.

Through that unending black chaos I pushed my way, Ed's order still ringing in my ears. _"Don't stop. Get through to the other side."_ I didn't know where this other side was or what I'd find there, but neither did I have time to wonder. I kept bulling my way through this hell; I couldn't stop. If I stopped, if I hesitated just a second, _they_ would get me. I would become one of them.

I quickly lost track of how long I had been here. Time didn't seem to exist here. It could have been seconds or it could have been years before at last I saw a light in that infernal darkness.

A light…where there should have been none. The other side.

Seeing it brought fresh hope to me, and I struggled harder against the hands that pulled at me. It was so far away…but slowly, slowly, it came nearer. Bigger. Brighter. I reached for it desperately, fingertips barely brushing it as the monsters pulled at me harder. They seemed to sense I was about to get away from them.

I pushed all the harder, spurred on by the promise of getting away from here. I _had_ to get away from here!

My fingers brushed the light, and I tried harder, harder, _harder_. My fingers were swallowed…then my hands and wrists…and suddenly it was easier. The monsters backed away, as if they were afraid of the light. I felt them let go of me, and immediately I jumped into the light, afraid that if I hesitated, they would claim me for good.

That pure white light washed over me, warm and inviting. Blinding. I couldn't see. It wrapped around me, taking away all senses until all I knew was the white.

Then, abruptly, the light disappeared and sense returned.

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the suddenness of it. After a few seconds I realized that I was no longer in the darkness beyond the Gate. I was back in the real world.

But something was wrong. Very wrong. This looked like Amestris…there was blue sky with clouds sailing across it…trees…streets with automobiles…buildings.

But the buildings were tall, _too_ tall. And those cars…their designs were different. Smoother and sleeker. More powerful.

Most of all, though, I was keenly aware of my body. It wasn't mine.

_What's going on?_ my mind screamed as I looked at myself in confusion. It all _looked_ the same…my hair was still white, long, and somewhat messy. My hands, my face, my body, it all looked and felt the same. But it _felt_ wrong. The wound in my back was gone, along with the pains from the fight with Greed. Yet the most obvious of all were my legs.

They weren't automail. They were flesh and blood. After so many years of metal, the feeling of blood coursing through my legs was rather disconcerting.

Someone bumped into me from behind. "Watch where yer standing, kid!" the guy snapped grumpily as he passed by.

"S-sorry," I whispered as he walked away. It was then that I realized that I was standing in the middle of a moderately busy sidewalk, and I started walking aimlessly, studying the people as I went. They looked normal, like the people I was used to. Their clothes were far different, though; most of the women were even wearing pants.

I didn't understand. This was what was beyond the Gate? A whole different _world_? Was I hallucinating? And who was this person who lived here? Who was this boy who looked just like me? How did I end up in his body?

More importantly, if I was here, where was _he_?

_About time you thought about that._

I froze, staring at the ground in front me. That voice…it was _Greed's_ voice! But how could he possibly be here? He didn't follow me through the Gate. At least, I didn't think he did; it wouldn't make sense.

_Greed? I don't know who this Greed is, but he's certainly not me. Not that I care; I'm more interested in you. Who are you? Why are you here?_

Biting my lip, I quickly made my way to a nearby bench and sat down. _Are you…are you this boy?_ I asked, feeling more than a little weird for talking to a voice in my head.

_No,_ he said, and I blinked in surprise. _That would be my landlord. But you're not going to talk to him. You're only going to deal with me. You, who came out of the darkest depths of the Shadow Realm to possess this body. No one from the Shadow Realm comes back; who _are_ you?_

Shadow Realm? Was he referring that awful chaos I had been forced into?

_Forced into?_

I winced. _Stay out of my private thoughts!_

_Can't help it when you're shouting. Still…I imagine simply reading your memories would be far easier than asking questions._

_Reading my--?_ I didn't even have time to finish the thought when a flash of agony lanced through my head. Clamping my hands on it, I leaned forward instinctively and squeezed my eyes shut. Memories flashed through my consciousness, from the earliest times I could remember right up until my journey through the chaos just a few minutes ago. Desperately, I tried to fight back the pain. This was _wrong_, it shouldn't be _happening_, what the hell was he _doing_ to me?

As suddenly as it began, the pain stopped. I cracked my eyes open and stared at the sidewalk beneath me, terrified of what this being would do next. What did I do to deserve this? I was only doing what Ed said; I was only trying to live!

Did this boy have to live with this every day?

_That's not your matter, intruder. Come in here where I can see you._

Before I could wonder at his words, I felt a pull at the back of my mind. Instinctively, I fought against, thinking that he was trying to take me back to that place he called the Shadow Realm. Yet he was far too strong, and abruptly I was pulled back, falling into darkness once again. This was a different darkness, though; there were no creatures grabbing for me here, and neither was it complete.

I looked around and found myself standing in a hall. Both ends stretched into darkness, and two doors faced each other from opposite sides of the hall. One door was open.

In the door stood a man who violently reminded me of Greed. He looked just like me, long white hair, normal skin tone, dark brown eyes, but the expression in those eyes was bone-chilling. It was insanity.

"W-where am I?" I winced as the words slipped out; I didn't want to make this man, whoever he was, angry.

"Inside your mind," he answered. "Or _his_ mind, actually." He pointed at the door across the hall. "But as I said earlier, you're not going to deal with him. He's never going to know you were here."

"…Who is he?"

"He's you." The man smirks at my no-doubt confused expression. "He is the version of you that exists in this world."

"This world? Then…this isn't Amestris?"

"No. There is no country called Amestris here. We don't have alchemy either."

My jaw dropped. No _alchemy_? How could alchemy not exist?

"As easily as our technology doesn't exist in your world," the man answered, once more demonstrating his ability to read my mind with ease. "Your science is based around alchemy, ours around physics. It must balance out somehow." He studied me, his dark brown gaze boring a hole into me. "You cannot be here," he said eventually. "Ryou has one tenet already; he does not need another."

"I can't go back!" I yelled at him, taking a step back. "I'll die if I get back there, and I…I'm not sure if I can make it back through the…Shadow Realm. I'm not sure if I can get past _them_ again."

The man snorted. "All you have to do is ignore them. They are souls that were banished to the Shadow Realm. Over time, they lost everything that made them individuals, and they became what you saw there. Nothing more than hungry shadows. But your fear of them is their only power over you. And you _must_ go back. Whether you live or die on the other side is no concern of mine."

"But how am I supposed to get back? If there's no alchemy here, there's no way I can open a Gate."

"Who says you're using a Gate?" The man tapped a pendant resting against his chest. It was bright gold, a ring with five sharp triangular points dangling around the outer rim and a pyramid with an eye in the middle set on the inside. With a start, I realized that the Eye was the same as the one carved on the doors of the gate.

"In this world there is magic," he continued, oblivious to my shock. "Magic that is tied closely to the Shadow Realm. I can use that magic to send you back."

"You…you can? Who are you?"

The man chuckled. "My name is Bakura as well. I am a tomb robber, and a stealer of souls. Many of those you fought against the Shadow Realm were sealed there by me." He grinned maniacally. "They were foolish enough to oppose me."

I winced at the not-so-subtle threat. "H-how can I be sure you won't seal _me_ there for good? You've already said you don't care what happens to me."

"You can't, can you?" Bakura answered with a smirk. "Then again, I don't think I can seal you there. After all, I did not know about this world beyond until now. I wonder…if those others I sealed in the Shadow Realm knew of it, would they have fought through to the other side?" He chuckled. "Somehow, I don't think so. Most of those fools were weak. They would have stopped and let the others take them."

"I thought you said you were sending me back?" I wasn't looking forward to possibly dying, but it had to be better than staying here, with Bakura's constant threats. He had already proved that he was stronger than me; hell, he had forcibly read through every memory I possessed. He could do anything he wanted to me, and many of those options definitely seemed worse than death.

"I _am_ sending you back," he answered. "In fact, I'm going with you."

"You're…_what_?"

"I am going with you," Bakura said slowly, as if explaining a particularly difficult math problem to a toddler. "This Wrath comes from the Shadow Realm; it is there that he belongs, and you have not the power to put him there yourself. Besides, I'm rather curious about Greed. I want to see what this version of myself in that world is like."

"You've seen enough, haven't you?" I asked, rubbing my head.

"I've seen him through your perception of him," he answered smoothly as he walked toward me. "You fear him, perhaps too much. Why is that?"

I backed away a step. "He's…he's not natural."

"Neither am I. Do you fear me as well?" He stepped closer, and my back hit the wall behind me.

"You'd better believe it," I replied.

He smirked. "Well, there's no helping that, I suppose. Fear me if you want, but I'm the only one who can take you back. And I _will_ take you back."

One more step, and he reached for me. He didn't grab me, however; instead, his hands passed right through me, _into_ me. I shuddered at the intense cold of his touch.

"Let me in, fool," he hissed when I tried to resist. "This is the only way it will work. Otherwise I'd risk bringing the landlord along, and I need him here."

"W-why?" I whispered, closing my eyes as he stepped into me, melding with me. So cold…

_That is not your concern. Get going, Ryou._

I opened my eyes to find the hall quickly fading away, darkness replacing. At first, it wasn't so bad. The darkness shifted, even paled at some points, as if it were truly made of shadows. However, that quality slowly faded away, and what little light had penetrated also disappeared. Nothing was left but the pitch black chaos.

_Move,_ Bakura commanded, and I unwillingly started forward again. The creatures were all around; I could sense them, and I could feel their hungry gazes boring into me. Yet they didn't reach for me this time. They stayed back, huddled around but out of my reach. They must have known of the being I carried with me this time. They must have feared him.

The going was easier this time because of the creatures' fear, but it was no less tedious. The darkness stretched on and on and on with no end, and the lack of time didn't help. Years passed by in an instant, and seconds crawled into infinity, and still I pushed onward, not even sure if I was walking or floating. All perceptions were distorted here; the only thing I could do was press on and hope to see the light soon.

Soon…soon…I had to keep going…

Eternity passed in seconds, and at last the darkness ahead was marred by the tiniest pinprick of light. _The other side!_ I quickened my pace, fixated on the light that drew steadily nearer. I was almost there; I was almost out! All thoughts of what would happen when I reached the other side had flown from my head. All I cared about was getting out.

It was right before me, and without hesitation I ran into it and let it swallow me.

Pain hit me before the light even cleared away, and I staggered, once again reaching around for the knife still embedded in my back. In front of me were Ed, Greed, and Wrath, all staring at me like I had grown a second head. Ed was breathing heavily and bleeding from a dozen wounds, his automail arm twisted and hanging loosely by his side. Vaguely, I wondered how long I had actually been gone, but before I could think of asking, something strange happened.

My body moved on its own.

My hand reached back and pulled the knife out of my back in one excruciating tug. With a thrill of shock, I realized the _Bakura_ was controlling me. _How?_ This was _my_ body; he couldn't do this. My arm paused in bringing the knife around as I struggled against his control.

_Keep it up and I **will** throw you in the Shadow Realm to rot. Be thankful I'm letting you see what's happening._

I winced mentally and gave up the struggle, watching as he brought the bloody knife around. "So," he purred in a voice that was my own and yet not. "This is the other side." With a manic chuckle, he brought the knife to my lips and licked it.

"R-Ryou!" Ed shouted, horror and disgust flashing across his face. Wrath's expression remained neutral, while Greed's face was a study in shock, disgust, and curiosity. It made me feel slightly better to know he _could_ feel those emotions.

"Guess again," Bakura told the Colonel coolly as he flicked the knife casually at Greed. The Homunculus had to act quickly to dodge, but he wasn't quite quick enough, and the knife slashed through his arm as it sailed by. The tomb robber focused his attention on Greed then, and I got the impression that he was unimpressed. "So, you must be Greed," he commented.

"I am," Greed replied warily, clutching his injured arm. "If you're not Ryou, who are you?"

Again came the psychotic chuckle. "I suppose you could say I'm you," he answered, reaching up with one hand to rub something. It was then that I noticed the pendant. The same gold pendant that Bakura had been wearing back in that other world was now hanging around _my_ neck. How? How had it gotten there? "But I'm different," he continued to say. "Whereas you are little more than a psyche inhabiting a false body, I am little more than a soul inhabiting my Millennium Ring. And I have far more power than you could ever dream of. Jealous?" He grinned.

Greed's face twisted into an expression of pure rage, but before he could do anything, Wrath spoke up. "You shouldn't underestimate the power of the Homunculi, stranger," he said. "It might get you killed."

He was moving before he had even finished speaking, but Bakura had been anticipating it. He grabbed Wrath's wrist with his left hand as the Homunculus swung a punch at us, ducked under his arm, and chopped at his kidney with his right hand. Wrath staggered, a choked gurgle of pain escaping his lips as Bakura let him go.

"You do not belong here," he hissed at the Homunculus. "Go back to the shadows where you belong."

I noticed then that the Gate was still there, its doors closed against the darkness within. Not for long though; even as I looked, the Ring around my neck began to glow, and as if in response to that glow, the Gate began to open again. Only this time, it wasn't creaking open slowly. This time, the doors almost slammed opened, and the shadows within poured out into the room, the creatures within reaching for Wrath, their eyes glinting with hunger and victory.

"No!" Wrath screamed, trying to back away, but it was already too late. "No, don't take me! I don't want to go back!"

The creatures weren't listening to him, however. They had their hold on him, and they were dragging him forward, closer to the depths of the Shadow Realm that lay beyond. He kicked and struggled and screamed so much that I almost felt sorry for him, and then he was gone. The darkness retreated from the room then, going back beyond the Gate and taking the creatures and Wrath with it.

In the silence that dominated afterward, Bakura spoke to me again. _Take off the Ring and toss it in before the Gate closes._

With a start, I realized I was back in control of my body, the pain of the wound in my back nearly overwhelming me. _But…but Greed—_

_Greed is your mistake. You fix it. I must return to where I belong._

_But…can you…?_

_The Shadow Realm is my world. I am its master. I will not get lost or succumb to those that are sealed there. Do it, boy._

Hastily I reached up and pulled the Ring's cord over my head and looked at it. The gold glinted brightly in the dim room, and I noticed that I no longer heard Bakura's voice in my head. So…this was the connector. He lived within this pendant. How did he end up that way? And why?

I'd never know the answers. "Thank you," I whispered to it, and then I threw the Ring into the shadows beyond the still open Gate. It slammed shut then, as if it had been awaiting that one action, and melted away into nothingness, leaving behind only the wall of the basement. I wanted to fall down and go to sleep right then and there.

"Hey!" Greed snarled, reminding me that I wasn't quite finished yet. "What the hell did you just do?"

"Nothing," I replied, turning wearily to face him. "_He_ was the one who sent Wrath beyond the Gate. Don't ask me how; I'm not sure."

Confusion crossed his face for just an instant, and then Greed laughed. "So, Ryou the Godplayer is back, eh?" he said. "Just as well. Now I'm free to kill you."

He bent down and retrieved his knife. As I watched him come towards me, my vision began to haze over. It was getting so hard to breathe…

"Major!"

I looked over just into see Ed slide something to me across the floor. It came to a stop beside my foot, and I fell to my knees as I bent over to pick it up. A dagger…I had meant to bring it with me earlier…the Colonel must have gotten it for me when he had gotten Akira's bone.

Greed's footsteps quickened, and I looked up to see him running at me, knife leading. But he was slower than usual, as if the loss of the red stones that had given him life was taking its toll. I was easily able to palm his knife hand away and thrust the dagger forward so that he impaled himself upon it.

The look on his face reminded my of the Akira's terror as he watched the train coming down to crush him.

_Oh, God. What have I done?_

That terror melted away from his face as he fell to his knees in front of me, and it was replaced with a smile. "Killing doesn't suit you, Ryou," he whispered as blood poured around the dagger to stain his shirt and pool around his knees. "You should stick to alchemy, bro." His red eyes fluttered closed, and he fell back.

I stared at him for all five seconds as my fog-filled brain processed his words. The last words he had spoken to me. The last words Akira had spoken to me that day years ago.

I heard Ed call my name again, but it seemed to come from far away. The fog in my head had taken my vision, turning everything to gray, and noise didn't seem to penetrate. Breathing hurt so much…I was so tired…

I fell forward and let the darkness take me.


	20. Epilogue

Note: This authoress has joined the Witness Protection Program, but she would like to state that this ending came out of freaking NOWHERE as she finished the last chapter. She did not plan on it, but it was the way the story wanted to end. That being said, she suggests you leave a review for the end of her favorite project and begs you not to hunt her down. For one last time, she does not own Yu-Gi-Oh or FullMetal Alchemist.

Epilogue

I stood under the shade of the oak tree and watched the group come up the hill, six of them carrying the casket that contained the white haired boy. So many people…I was surprised that all of them would come. Even my father was there. Granted, he didn't look sad at all, but he was still there. He was the biggest surprise of all.

Sighing, I leaned back and stared up at the sun. It didn't hurt my eyes anymore, but then, very little affected me these days. I couldn't feel the warmth of that sun, or the cool shadows of the trees' leaves. The rough bark behind my back didn't scratch me, and the wind that blew didn't even touch my hair.

That funeral I was watching? It was my funeral.

That wound Greed had put in my back had been just a little too much for my body to handle. I didn't mind now, though; being dead had its advantages. Now I knew the truth behind the alchemy I had cherished so much. The whole process depended on Touka Koukan—Equivalent Exchange. Sure, that was true for the materials, but it was also true about the energy used. I had never thought of it before, but now I knew.

That other world was wracked with war and death, and energy we used for alchemy came from the leftover energy of those who died there. Just as the energy of our dead fueled the magic that existed there. Touka Koukan.

I also knew that there was no way Greed could have ever become my brother, Philosopher's Stone or no. He had been foolish to try. He may have had a few of Akira's memories, but ultimately he was only a soulless imitation. True human transmutation was beyond anyone's power.

The priest was giving the eulogy now, but I paid no attention to it. Instead I studied the faces of the people who had come.

Fuhrer Mustang was there, his stone cold face masking the pain I knew he surely felt. A survivor of the Ishbal and Lior civil wars…he had seen too much death already. I wondered if he would make the information about human transmutation and the Philosopher's Stone public knowledge, if only to prevent anything like the wars or the creation of Homunculi from happening again. Colonel Elric had wanted him to, I knew.

Ed was standing beside him, a haunted look in his eyes. He had watched me die…I wish he didn't have to. He had seen too much already. His brother Alphonse was there as well, holding Joshua. Our supposed savior, that Joshua. He couldn't save me, but he had done both the Colonel and me a huge favor just by opening the Gate. I wondered if he would ever know how thankful I was.

Malik and Ishizu were behind them. Malik had his customary cold look painted on his face, his I-care-about-no-one-and-nothing look. My best friend. I hoped it wouldn't be long before he was grinning again, before his devil-may-care attitude returned. It suited him far better than this.

The Mutou brother had come. Yugi was crying openly, and Atemu had one arm wrapped around him. My heart broke when I looked at them. They had done so much for me, and not just fixing me up with automail. They had been my first friends, playing with Akira and me almost from the day we were born. They were the ones I could talk to after my brother died, and it was their automail shop that I considered home far more than my own. Yugi…don't cry. You'll see me again someday.

Mom…God, Mom. I'm so sorry.

You were so afraid of losing me. And now you have. Can you ever forgive me?

Take care of her, Dad. I wish now I had taken the Fuhrer's advice and made amends with you. May we both be forgiven for being stubborn. And thank you. Thank you for coming.

There were others. Brigadier General Hawkeye, Sergeant Falman, other officers I had interacted with during the years I had spent in the military. Anzu, and a few others from Serra's Point. Winry Rockbell. Rishid. Even Lt. Colonel Honda Hiroto was there. I had no idea I was so popular.

"Aren't you tired of being depressed by now?"

I turned to the boy beside me and smiled. "Depressed? Not me. I'll see them again someday. Besides, how can I be depressed at seeing you again, brother?"

Akira grinned back. "That's the spirit!" he said. "Everyone will die sooner or later; it's just how the world works. Nothing to be afraid of or sad about."

"Perhaps," I agreed. "But no one knows that while they're still alive…Akira?"

"Hm?"

"Can you forgive me?"

He laughed. "I've lost count of how many times you've asked me that, bro, and the answer's always the same. You're forgiven."

"I'm still not sure I can believe it."

"Believe it." He held out a hand. "Come on, Ryou. There's someone from that I want you to meet. She's from the other side, and I guess you could say she's our sister. Her name's Amane."

"Okay." I took my brother's hand, and as we turned to go I threw one last look over my shoulder at the funeral.

Ed was looking in our direction. Whether he could see us or not, I'd never know, but I appreciated it anyways, that look. Hesitating, I slowly gave him one last salute. Then I turned and vanished into the light.


End file.
